In The Media
It's where you need to be.
How do you get the media to call you?
When Oracle Corp.
announced earlier today that it was taking
steps to help and encourage its customers to upgrade to the latest
version of its database software, at least one major technology
publishing house was ready for the story by having yesterday
interviewed an expert from the Oracle community on why the company
was taking this step. When IDG News Service
reported today on the Oracle move,
Canada’s own Paul Vallée, founder and president of
Ottawa-based
The Pythian
Group, was quoted in reaction to the announcement, thanks to
the media outlet yesterday seeking out Vallée for his views on the
anticipated Oracle news.
The call from IDG and Vallée’s subsequent appearance in several major news articles ( PC World, CIO, IT World) was no random fluke or accident. It was, rather, the expected outcome of a deliberate strategy to position Vallée and his company as authoritative sources on Oracle and many other issues pertaining to database administration. It was the result of having established for Pythian what we at in media Public Relations like to call “Rolodex factor,” building up within newsrooms a solid reputation as a reliable, accessible and quotable source on key specific subject matter.
While it’s a strategy that pays dividends for many of our clients, in Pythian’s case, it’s practically the entire strategy because, as a database administration outsourcing company, Pythian does not have the usual flow of announcements and news releases that drive most media relations programs. Indeed, our entire program with Pythian has been built around educating key journalists about the deep knowledge Pythian’s people have and then working both proactively and reactively to lever that knowledge into coverage.
It’s an approach born of my experience as a journalist and put to work from the very outset of in media’s existence. When I was an ink-stained wretch, my toughest challenge each shift was not figuring out what I was going to report on that day; that had usually been decided for me by the events of the day long before I came into the newsroom. My challenge was to find the reliable sources to whom I could turn for the information and opinions I would need to write a fair and balanced story.
This understanding of how newsrooms operate informs our media relations practice. Our very first client, the Ottawa office of the international accounting firm Ernst and Young, presented a challenge similar to Pythian’s in that it was unlikely to have the kind of news announcements that drive coverage for product companies. Our solution was the same as for Pythian; tell the target reporters how our client could be valuable to them when they were looking for that authoritative source on certain subjects. We didn’t have to wait long. Scant weeks into our program, Nortel’s then-CEO John Roth was widely quoted complaining about what he said was disadvantageous tax treatment for multinational companies operating in Canada. Having already been primed that our clients were experts in tax issues for technology companies operating on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, many journalists came looking for our Ernst and Young experts for their comments and opinions. The company’s expertise was salted through stories that quoted its tax partners advising on how the taxation playing field could be levelled.
Many media relations practitioners spend their entire days calling reporters, editors, producers and, these days, bloggers and trying to persuade these gatekeepers to write about their clients. It sure is sweet when the shoe’s on the other foot and the media are calling us.
The call from IDG and Vallée’s subsequent appearance in several major news articles ( PC World, CIO, IT World) was no random fluke or accident. It was, rather, the expected outcome of a deliberate strategy to position Vallée and his company as authoritative sources on Oracle and many other issues pertaining to database administration. It was the result of having established for Pythian what we at in media Public Relations like to call “Rolodex factor,” building up within newsrooms a solid reputation as a reliable, accessible and quotable source on key specific subject matter.
While it’s a strategy that pays dividends for many of our clients, in Pythian’s case, it’s practically the entire strategy because, as a database administration outsourcing company, Pythian does not have the usual flow of announcements and news releases that drive most media relations programs. Indeed, our entire program with Pythian has been built around educating key journalists about the deep knowledge Pythian’s people have and then working both proactively and reactively to lever that knowledge into coverage.
It’s an approach born of my experience as a journalist and put to work from the very outset of in media’s existence. When I was an ink-stained wretch, my toughest challenge each shift was not figuring out what I was going to report on that day; that had usually been decided for me by the events of the day long before I came into the newsroom. My challenge was to find the reliable sources to whom I could turn for the information and opinions I would need to write a fair and balanced story.
This understanding of how newsrooms operate informs our media relations practice. Our very first client, the Ottawa office of the international accounting firm Ernst and Young, presented a challenge similar to Pythian’s in that it was unlikely to have the kind of news announcements that drive coverage for product companies. Our solution was the same as for Pythian; tell the target reporters how our client could be valuable to them when they were looking for that authoritative source on certain subjects. We didn’t have to wait long. Scant weeks into our program, Nortel’s then-CEO John Roth was widely quoted complaining about what he said was disadvantageous tax treatment for multinational companies operating in Canada. Having already been primed that our clients were experts in tax issues for technology companies operating on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, many journalists came looking for our Ernst and Young experts for their comments and opinions. The company’s expertise was salted through stories that quoted its tax partners advising on how the taxation playing field could be levelled.
Many media relations practitioners spend their entire days calling reporters, editors, producers and, these days, bloggers and trying to persuade these gatekeepers to write about their clients. It sure is sweet when the shoe’s on the other foot and the media are calling us.
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