Mary Donohue: David welcome to the show. Small business people have traditionally felt that PR is out of their reach.
The comment I hear most often is how do I get a reporter to accept my calls, what do they want to know about?
David Akin : Thanks, Mary. It's great to be here.
I don't think small business should think that PR is out of their reach. Sure, it might be unrealistic to think that your story is going to be on the front page of the Wall Street Journal tomorrow, but there's likely always going to some reporter somewhere that's going to be interested in your story. You just have to find that reporter.
Here's some tips:
1. If you think the Financial Post should write about your news item, you should be reading the Financial Post regularly. In other words, read the publications that you think would be interested in running your story.
2. Remember: We're interested in news, not marketing. New prices for your products, new features for your products aren't news unless you're Microsoft or GM. That's what advertising is for.
3. Find out ahead of time what reporters, writers, editors are interested in what you have to say and find out how and when they like to receive information. A day ahead? A week ahead? Morning? Afternoon? E-Mail? Fax? Find out how you can fit into the news organizations inputs.
Mary Donohue: I have often heard it is a good idea to call a reporter, is this true?
David Akin : Phone calls are an important part of the process but, just as with your sales representatives, cold calls have a low rate of success. You need to establish a relationship -- again, just like in any other aspect of your business -- and a phone call can be the beginning of a relationship. Personally, I love e-mail and, for most matters, that's how I want to hear what's up. You can send me e-mail (dakin@nationalpost.com) 20 times an hour and it won't bother me. Phone me when at 5:30 in the afternoon when I'm 20 minutes away from deadline and it's going to be very tough to build that relationship.
Tim:
How should we pitch you?
David Akin : Hi Tim --
Again, read the paper and take a look at the kinds of stories we're interested in. Usually we focus on something that's first to market, has a unique human interest angle, or has some other exceptional quality to it. Look for that angle in whatever it is you have to tell me. Ask yourself: If I'm having my morning coffee and I run across this in my newspaper, would I be interested even if I wasn't interested? What won't get my crank going is pitches that start out: "We're a Canadian success story . . ." Here's a newsflash: Most Canadian companies are successful. You don't need to buy a newspaper to find that out.
Matt:
What is your worst experience as a reporter
David Akin : Hi Matt --
Worst experience? What do you mean? From a PR standpoint or just overall goofing up on the job?
Matt:
What should we do to not get on your bad side, what really
pisses you off?
David Akin : I'm pretty patient but when I ask public relations professionals to communicate with me in a certain way and they keep ignoring our requests, that gets annoying. I've got an e-form letter which spells out who does what on the tech beat at the Post and how to reach us. (You can get it for yourself by sending an e-mail to dakin@nationalpost.com and, in the subject line, put this phrase: natpost tech lineup ) You'll get an automated reply.
PR types who lie drive us nuts, too. If we ask you something and you can't tell us the truth, do the old 'no comment' routine. Don't tell us a fib.
Bill :
How long should a news release be?
David Akin : The glib answer is: As long as it takes.
In reality, I'd say keep it to no more than one or two screenfuls of plain-text in an e-mail. FOr a fax/written release, probably one or two pages is tops. All you need to do is quickly get my interest then it's my job to come to you and find out all the background.
Give me some self-serve options, too. Direct me, in your press release, to your Web site where I could find out about your business, your management, your operating history and all the other stuff I need to do my due diligence.
So: Short and sweet to start with a press release and use it to lure me to you where you can fill my head with the rest of your fabulous story.
Irene:
What is in your opinion the best public relations "coo"
this year
David Akin : The best public relations coup? Hmmm. It's hard to say. Lots of companies take creative approaches to getting my attention but, probably one of the coolest was one by OpenCola Ltd.. They're a Toronto software that makes some very sophisticated search software and they develop that software under the Open Source model. It's cool stuff but it's hard for a non-geek to get excited about what they're doing. So to get some attention, they released Open Cola, an actual Open Source soft drink -- the recipe was right there on the side of the can along with some computer code that, if you ran it through your computer, would give you the cola recipe. That was not only a good PR stunt but it illustrated what Open Source was all about.
Jane:
What constitutes the worst release ever, that has been sent
to you, how can I avoid doing this?
David Akin : I don't want to disparage the companies involved but take a look at the first paragraph of this press release from a couple of days ago:
AXXENT and OceanLake Create Canada's Hosted Wireless Service
Toronto, ON February 8, 2001 - OceanLake Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of
Automated Recycling Inc. (CDNX: ENA), and AXXENT Inc. (TSE:AXI.b), through
its operating subsidiary, AXXENT Corp., one of Canada's largest competitive
local exchange carriers (CLECs), today announced that they had signed a
memorandum of understanding, conditional on finalizing certain terms and
conditions, to form a strategic partnership that will offer their customers
access to a new hosted wireless service. . .
And here's a link to the entire press release:
http://www.newswire.ca/releases/February2001/08/c2072.html
Does the opening of that release make any sense to you? Do everyone a favour: Get rid of the jargon and eliminate all but the most important point from your press releases. All that stuff about deals being conditional on certain things you stuff at the back of the press release.
SH:
How can I be sure if a reporter has even read my release?
Should I call?
David Akin : We're professionals. It's our job to read them. It's also in my best interest to make sure I don't miss a story. I get 300-400 e-mails a day, about a quarter of which are press release. I read the first screen of every one. If I don't, I run the risk that a great story is going to be in the Globe or the Star and not my paper. Case in point: Last night at 4:30 pm, I got an e-mail saying Corel Corp. had filed a new filing with stock market regulators in the States. These filings normally are just rehashed press releases but, as a reporter, you've got to check them out. In this case, turned out it was a filing that said Microsoft was going to sell Corel's shares. We have that story in today's paper: http://www.nationalpost.com/tech/story.html?f=/stories/20010222/481351.html.
and the guys at The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star missed it.
JR:
What do you think is really happening with Nortel? Did
they fail with their PR?
David Akin : Nope. The rules set down by U.S. stock market regulators are very clear: When you know something about your business, you've got tell everyone about it as soon as possible. You can't just tell some people and you can't just say you've got a feeling things are bad. There've been reports that Roth was saying one thing to one group and another to another. Not true. Every public comment I've seen from Nortel over the last six months has been consistent -- the analysts back me up here. They pore over what NOrtel execs say and if they'd a hint of something, they would have lowered their ratings. Roth did the right thing: He fessed up as soon as he had the numbers. The situation there is not a PR thing as much as an investor relations thing. The press and investors often have similar information needs but they just as often have substantially different information needs. Nortel definitely has some work to re-building its reputation with investors but it's done relatively all right through this in terms of its press relations.
Tarmatte:
what is the difference between a national story and a local
story,
David Akin : Our criteria for putting stuff in the National Post is this: Is this something Canadians need to know about or will find it interesting?
It's a local story when the impact of the news or those affected could only possibly be local.
For example: I got a press release today that some high-tech company was going to put up a lot of money to help re-build some facilities at the Exhibition grounds in Toronto in preparation for an International Hockey League Franchise. That's a great story for the Toronto Star and for our Toronto section but it's not a national story. Folks in Moncton or Moose Jaw couldn't care about Toronto's waterfront redevelopment.
On the other hand, I had another story in today's paper that suggests Toronto, not Ottawa, is Canada's high-tech capital. We bet that Canadians hate being told Toronto is the centre of anything so we ran that story in the national edition because we figured our readers would have a real reaction to that story. (Here's that story: http://www.nationalpost.com/tech/story.html?f=/stories/20010222/481405.html)
Vicki:
If we don't have a national story what should we do
David Akin : Tell your local paper, your local radio, or anyone who'll listen. Just remember, writers and broadcasters at local stations have fewer resources and probably aren't specialists. You'll need to spend a little more time with them and be a little more patient with them. Any press, though, it seems to me, is good press. Press clippings from local or regional papers can often get picked up and run in national papers. For example: The company that owns the Post also owns the Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Province, and many others. We often run stories in the Post written by and published in the Citizen, Herald or Province.
Mike:
Do you think PR is valuable or do you think companies
should just do PR by themselves?
David Akin : PR is valuable. You'll get a lot of reporters who are dismissive of PR attempts. Not me. I need to know what's going on and press releases are an important way to find out what's going on. As with anything, though, you get what you pay for. If you want to do your own PR, go ahead if you think you can, but your PR message is going to be competing against the PR from highly-paid professionals who already have established relationships with us. If you hire a PR firm, you're essentially paying for that relationship rather than having to build it yourself.
Ababas:
In your opinion are gimmicks good or do they just hide a
bad story?
David Akin : We laugh at gimmicks when we get them in our newsroom so, from the standpoint of getting the attention of people here, I guess gimmicks work. But, really, you need to evaluate gimmicks in light of your PR goals. We get gimmicky stuff from, for example, MSN.ca, the Microsoft Network Canada, to advertise new content. But we get straight, sober, and serious PR from Microsoft Canada about their corporate endeavours. If we've never heard of you, you can try to be gimmicky or cutesy but you'll probably be stuck with that reputation. Remember: I'm a professional and the stuff I write is serious, sober news so just give me the news and trust that, since I want the best stories for my paper, I'm going to come after you to get the rest of that story.
David Akin : Thanks for inviting me. And if you've got some news, feel free to e-mail at dakin@nationalpost.com.
