Things You Need to Know That You Won’t Learn in the Classroom

PRSSA Workshop #1

PR Lingo

• COB—Close of Business. Often used in deadlines. • Hit—Media coverage • Editorial Calendars--schedules that magazines and other

publications will distribute a year in advance going over what each issue is going to cover• lead time—period of time that reporters and producers need to

prepare stories and information for publication or broadcast

• Pitching– can be used for presenting an idea to the media, or presenting ideas to a client in the hopes of winning business.

• Sweeps—also referred to as media monitoring, search the media for coverage of your client or issues related to your client.

PR Lingo Continued

• Boilerplate—a brief paragraph stating who you are, what you do, and how you do it, usually used as the first paragraph in a biography or last paragraph in a news release

• Masthead—list of editors, publishers, and senior reporters in each publication's issue. It includes an address and telephone number

• Wire service—news stories, features, etc., sent by direct line to subscribing or member newspapers and radio and television stations

• Reach—geographic area of the audience and the number of readers, listeners, or viewers who can access the media in any region• Impressions—the number of people who may have seen an article,

heard something on the radio etc.

Know the media you’re pitching

• Before a pitch, DO YOUR RESEARCH• KNOW:• How the reporter/outlet likes to be contacted• Why would your story interest the reporter and their readers? Know the

audience. • What types of stories does the reporter’s outlet run?• Research deadlines

DO: the earlier you pitch the better, make sure it’s timely, provide additional information or a way to get more information, start with an email pitch

DON’T: pitch to traditional media via social media, follow-up*, bribe reporters, send email pitches at odd hours

Useful websites and research tools

• Factiva

• Nexis

• Quantcast

• Cision

• America’s Newspapers

Media Lists

• Include: Outlet, prefix, first & last names, title, email, phone

• Create document in excel • Double check for misspellings/mistakes • Cross check Cision with outlet websites

Backgrounders

• Include: • What event or promotion the backgrounder will be used for• brief biography of reporter • brief summary of the outlet they work for• examples of their works (if possible choose articles that

relate to your client)• Rate how they cover your client/issues related to your client

as negative, neutral, positive

Coverage Reports

• Index page that includes • Article title• Author• Date published• Brief summary of article

• Include full text of the article, hyperlink to index• Include chart with number of impressions