Building better relationships between PR and journalists – with Journo Resources and Freelancing for Journalists

Written by Ella Desewu

Building better relationships between PR and journalists – with Journo Resources and Freelancing for Journalists: An event hosted by Vuelio on June 16th.

This webinar featured four journalists who spoke about the relationships between PRs and journalists and how they can work together well. In the webinar they used interactive polls to keep the audience involved as their answers were also used during the conversation.

The panelists discussed how the pandemic has impacted the relationship between PRs and journalists and they said that remote working has benefited those who are not London / City based due to access of online Zoom/Teams calls that would have been more exclusive if they were in person.

The panel expressed that looking into their personal social media accounts can give an insight into stories they are actually interested in rather than the by-lines they have had to write for work. They went on to explain that every good relationship they specifically had with PRs was from those who replied to their social media requests with extremely relevant info and a timely response, they are more likely to come back if you have helped them out successfully in the past (established credibility).

Lastly, they discussed the importance of PRs being reliable and not just sending random pitches or press releases to journalists as they will probably ignore it. They prefer exclusivity with the information that they are given, e.g. a case study or report from gathered data rather than a generic press release. They would rather an individual intimate relationship. The client of PRs must also learn to understand the commissioning process as they do not have the power to publish in a newspaper right away

Host:

Rebecca Potts – Access Intelligence

Panellists:

Jem Collins

Faima Baker

Lily Canter

Emma Wilkinson