Coverage of the tragedy in Boston last week showcased both the brilliance and challenges facing 21st century media outlets. Repeatedly, the public was misinformed and downright misled on developments in the search for the terrorists by national news organizations.
On the flip side, local coverage from Boston affiliates was top notch, with the reporters leveraging the trust they’ve built up over a period of years to glean valuable information from sources across the city.
In fact, MSNBC wisely switched its full feed to the NBC affiliate in Boston as the search for the suspects hit its peak last Thursday.
The whole story was tragic for all of us. Those impacted by terrorism personally could empathize. The rest could sympathize. However, despite federal assistance, this was a crime investigation specific to Boston and thus a story that lent itself to local media expertise.
The lesson for those of us working in media relations is a valuable one: As the Boston-based reporters demonstrated (and our experience working with clients across the country tells us), all media is local. They were the ones whose extensive knowledge of the community, political and law enforcement inner workings led to the coverage breakthroughs. With national news organizations and publications drastically cutting back on their staffing of bureaus outside New York City and Washington, D.C., the media in individual metro markets have become more valuable than ever in keeping businesses and individuals informed of important issues of the day.
As some national news gatherers discovered last week, strategic media relations in 2013 isn’t a place for the impatient or those seeking instant gratification. The relationships we at WordWrite have built with media in places such as Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. are hard earned. We understand the challenges of reaching the appropriate targets in different markets and getting coverage.
Elbow grease is a key ingredient, but if persistent emailing and calling were the most important aspects of media relations, then all our clients would be in the news every day. Barraging the media with pitches like so many darts at a dartboard fails to demonstrate the value an agency’s clientele have as trusted sources. 
It takes a delicate hand to effectively grow these types of relationships. We understand the issues that the reporters most relevant to our clients are covering. Just two weeks ago, a prominent health care writer working in a major southern city shared a pitch she received from a PR person in New York City about bikini season – not exactly what a policy reporter in that market wants to see in her email. More disheartening, she says she receives nearly 100 of those types of spam-like pitches every day, which buries the valuable insights of more strategic media relations pros deeper down the list in her inbox.
Because many of us at WordWrite are former journalists, we respect the deadline obligations under which the media operate. We take time to follow and engage them on Twitter. We know the seeds we’re planting won’t sprout overnight, or sometimes even in weeks. For instance, a jobs and workforce reporter in one of the largest cities in the country emailed us recently about a story idea we’d pitched to her a week earlier. She didn’t ever reference what we’d sent previously. The reporter was so busy (or the pitch was buried below so many other pitches that weren’t useful to her), that she likely didn’t even see what we’d originally provided. Yet the fact that she reached out to us proves the merits of our initial story idea.
Most important, we know the strengths and assets of the industry thought leaders we represent. Those we work with are strong in their respective fields and we trust that their expertise will eventually win over the media once properly framed. The reporters we engage in specific markets certainly believe the insight our clients provide will resonate with their viewers or readers. Their responses to our emails, praise for the sources we’ve connected them to and acknowledgement of the ideas tell us so.
Positioning your organization to the appropriate media in a targeted, strategic, disciplined manner is our business. If past performance is indicative of future success, then our track record indicates there’s much to look forward to down the road. Businesses who need their expertise showcased in media across the country should climb aboard and join us on this journey.
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Jeremy Church is an account supervisor for WordWrite Communications. He can be reached at jeremy.church@wordwritepr.com and on Twitter @churchjeremy.
