Why We Care What the Newspaper Guy Says

Tonight at our PRSSA meeting, we had David Trinko as a speaker. David is a journalist for the Lima News. Journalists and PR people have to work together whether we like it or not. This is why we wanted a perspective from the journalists side to understand how we can make their job easier and how to build mutually beneficial relationships with them.

David talked to us about how he loves getting to do something different everyday, but there are some aspects of his job he doesn’t love. As a journalist, David is bombarded with information all day long. People are constantly contacting him, asking him to do something for them. Each day, he receives over 300 emails, 100 faxes and 25 phone calls. He joked and said "that’s four dead trees and a lot of deleted emails".

Put yourself in the seat of the person you are delivering your message to and simplify it as much as possible. David shared the best way to get him to read what you send to him is to get to the core of your message as quickly as possible and KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). He wants the who, what, when, where and why and he doesn’t even mind if this information is in bullet points. Don’t forget to include the pertinent information, keep your file sizes small and double-check your work. As a journalist, David suggests you do your legwork ahead of time. Establishing a good relationship with journalists is vital:

• Do what you said you were going to do. For example, if you tell the journalist you will call back tomorrow with more information, call back tomorrow.
• Be the person they can count on.
• Don’t be the person who makes their job more difficult.
• A good relationship with a reporter can influence future stories, putting them in a positive or negative light depending on the relationship.
• Although journalists are supposed to leave emotions out of their job, they are human and underpaid. They will take their aggression out on you if you give them a reason.

Why should we care what the guy from newspaper says? Some may think newspaper is dying. The fact is more people are using local media today than they were 10 years ago. How? The combination of print and online presents more opportunities for newspaper. People still use local information centers and online is only presenting more opportunities for the newspaper industry. Newspaper has the advantage because they are word and picture based. Online just gives them another way to share the words and pictures along with other material such as video. David Trinko shared a lot of valuable information with us this evening. My biggest takeaway was the importance of being gracious if you get a no from a journalist and the importance of staying resilient. Journalists and PR professionals will always have to work together, so keep these things in mind and the relationship will be a positive one!