Ten Other Cardinal Sins in Dealing with the Media

1. Stereotyping Journalists

Whenever companies or their products come under fire from critical reporters they are usually quick in finding someone to blame: "This journalist has no idea, he just doesn't know the business." Or else: "No wonder this article takes such a negative view. It's the bad news that sell." Our experience is that no less than 90 percent of all critical articles on real estate companies contain at least a kernel of truth. In fact, it is a journalist's job to report critically. Naturally, he is more likely to report on a plane crash than on a safe landing. The fact that a journalist may not have as much detailed knowledge of the trade as a real estate professional with many years of experience is no reason at all for patronizing that journalist. If you perceive journalists as being your enemies and stupid ones at that, you have already lost the game. Journalists tend to have a very keen sense for subtle undertones. And it is hard to get the very people to like you whom you detest.

2. Arrogance

In general, it is you who wants something from the journalist, not the other way round. Like as not, the journalist will get along fine without you and your messages. You, however, rely on the journalist to represent your company to the public. If you find fault with this cast of roles, then you better do without PR work altogether. There is no reason why journalists should subordinate themselves to your timetable and have the time and place of the interview dictated to them (e. g., "I've got a half hour layover at the airport"). If you have the habit of cancelling appointments with journalists on short notice, this only goes to show just how little importance you attach to PR work in general and to journalists in particular.
 

3. Press Releases for the Board

Press releases are usually drafted by the press officer of a given company or by a PR agency. Sometimes one cannot help the feeling that the writer seeks to please primarily those who sign his pay-check, that is, the company's management or board. This may be one of the reasons for the self-congratulatory tone of many press releases. When writing copy for a press release you should not have your superiors in mind only journalists and readers. If press officers and PR workers lack the backbone to explain to their superiors from time to time that they know more about press work than them, they will ultimately lose the respect of their superiors as well.

4. Opinions Over Figures

Opinions are cheap. What is more, journalists tend to be more interested in facts and figures than in opinions. He who provides well-researched figures will carry the day. Market competence will always be reflected by the extent to which you are able to back the trends and developments you describe with solid statistical evidence. Facts and figures are obligatory, while opinions are an added luxury. If your house is not structurally sound, who cares about the fancy facade?
 

5. Fair Weather PR

Some closed-end funds will offer balances of payment only as long as their results are good. As results deteriorate, their publication tends to be delayed or incomplete until it is finally suspended. For years, it used to be common practice among open-ended funds to issue good news only while remaining silent on the subject of problems. This sort of communication strategy is hardly suited to win the trust of any journalist. "A company that will report the bad news along with the good raises the credit balance in its credibility account every time it does so," as one journalist put it once. Thus, every time a direct question is put to you, you should try to answer it as directly and precisely as possible. Empty formulations of the sort occasionally favoured by politicians are the very bane of journalism.

6. Phone Terror

Journalists often complain about telephone terror. Least liked are PR agency call centres that will call a week after the mailing of a given press release, at the latest, in order to inquire just what issue the release will be printed in, and why that has not happened yet. If you are looking for the best way to get the goat of any journalist, here it is: Call him every day (better still, have someone else call him every day) and ask him why your article or press release has not been published yet. Then again, it is perfectly legitimate to get back to him once and to inquire, without being pushy, whether he sees any chance for the item to be printed.
 

7. Refusing to Confront Your Critics

Perhaps you sometimes get the feeling that a given journalist actually dislikes your company or your products. If so, one of the options would be to complain to the editor-in-chief about him, to abuse him, and to refuse to ever talk to him again. None of this though would be likely to change his mind about you. In fact, your only chance to win empathy for your position is by trying to understand the journalist in turn. And the only way to do that is by talking to him. Yet even here it is best not to raise your expectations too high. For chances to convert him to your cause in a single sitting are very slim indeed.

8. Wanting to Say It All at Once

Occasionally, the media will be interested in named articles by real estate professionals too. Some dailies regularly publish columns by executives or managing directors of renowned companies. The most important rule violated when writing such a column is this: The writers try to explain their entire corporate philosophy in one go. The trouble is, this is simply not going to work in 100 to 120 lines. As a rule of thumb, you should limit yourself to one hypothesis per contribution. Just save your other hypotheses for your next contribution. Harsh as it may sound, if you have no clear theory you have no business writing a column. Show us a column whose hypothesis cannot be summarised in two sentences and we will show you a column that is simply bad and useless.
 

9. Neglecting Photographs

The media do not live on copy alone, but need to be fed images, graphics and charts as well. An item on the acquisition of a piece of real estate may be tugged into five lines in the lower left-hand corner of a page, or assuming it comes with a picture take up one fifth of the news page and become a real eye-catcher. Although real estate is often decidedly photogenic, the image material provided is just as often of decidedly poor and unprofessional quality. This is one of the mistakes journalists complain about most, and justifiably so. Actually, 95% of all pictures come without a description of their contents, without date, and often enough even without copyright information.
 

10. Mincing Words

If you really want to stay in control of what a paper will have to say about your company and your products, there is a very simple way to do so: Place an ad. If you expect every syllable of a given article to be just right, and if you wish to rule out any editorial errors, you have got the wrong idea about the frantic reality of journalistic routine. Which means that mincing words would be a waste of time. Rather, it is best not to be overcritical when realising that the paper got the facts straight by 90 percent rather than 100 percent. As long as the key statements and the general drift of the item's argument are correct, you should not ask for more. If this falls short of your expectations, however, you are bound to be disappointed time and again. You may find solace in the fact that most readers will not even read the article, and most of those who do will read it cursorily. No one at all will ever read the article as carefully as you. Do not be disappointed if you spent an hour talking to the journalist and gave him all kinds of information, only to be quoted in just two lines. A journalist always needs more background than will enter into the actual copy. Regardless of what the final article may suggest, your information helped to draft it, and he will certainly bear that in mind. Some of the bits not used this time around may be used another time, in other items. By the way, interviews are an exception to this: In interviews reprinted verbatim, you have the right to proofread and revise the text before it goes to press. Even here though it is advisable to be sparing with your changes. A journalist will have every right to be frustrated if next to nothing remains of a conversation once you get done revising it, and if genuinely interesting statements have been replaced by faddish claptrap.