{"id":135830,"date":"2021-06-18T11:36:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T10:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=135830"},"modified":"2021-06-18T11:55:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T10:55:40","slug":"how-to-build-better-relationships-between-prs-and-journalists-with-journo-resources-and-freelancing-for-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/how-to-build-better-relationships-between-prs-and-journalists-with-journo-resources-and-freelancing-for-journalists\/","title":{"rendered":"How to build better relationships between PRs and journalists with Journo Resources and Freelancing for Journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

We teamed up with Journo Resources<\/a> and Freelancing for Journalists<\/a> for our latest virtual event Building better relationships between PRs and journalists to find out how better connections can make working life a little easier<\/a> for both sides of the equation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watch Building better relationships between PRs and journalists here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sharing wisdom with our mixed PR (mainly PR \u2013 90%) and journalist audience was Journo Resources founder Jem Collins and senior staff writer Faima Baker and Freelancing for Journalists co-founders Lily Canter and Emma Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

Each regularly freelance, with the combined panel covering topics as diverse as lifestyle, healthcare, human rights, religion, culture, race, medicine and personal finance. Despite the vast differences in subject, each shared common experiences of working with PRs and how the industry can better serve them in their work.<\/p>\n

Not everything has to be a video call<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018I noticed this – if you set up an interview, now PRs are saying to you want to do a video call rather than a phone call,\u2019 said Lily. \u2018Zoom is great for this kind of thing, but I prefer doing interviews over phone, for example, because I\u2019m not going to have eye contact with the other person – I\u2019ll be taking notes. We don\u2019t have to do everything as a video call.\u2019<\/p>\n

Keep your email signature and Contact Us pages up-to-date<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018Contacting PRs and their clients became harder when working from home, at first – I was in the habit of Googling a client and then calling them,\u2019 said Faima.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was harder to get through to people – I was someone who\u2019d meet up with PRs; I like that face-to-face interaction. I\u2019ve had less contact with PRs since the start of the pandemic, but some have been really good with putting their mobile number on their website.\u2019<\/p>\n

Approach freelancers differently than you would staffers<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018It really is a different relationship that you\u2019ll have with freelancers<\/a>,\u2019 said Lily. \u2018My top tip for working with us is that exclusivity is key. We don\u2019t want the release you\u2019ve sent to every single news desk \u2013 there\u2019s nothing we can pitch. It\u2019s different if we\u2019re covering a news shift.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s not useful to me if I\u2019ve been sent the same thing everyone else has seen,\u2019 said Jem.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s a big difference between ringing a newsroom<\/a>, one person on a team, and ringing one person working alone and disrupting them. I\u2019m very guarded with my mobile number because 90% of the time I\u2019m called, it\u2019s to remind me of a press release that isn\u2019t relevant to me, as a freelancer.\u2019<\/p>\n

Work with journalists on the \u2018smaller\u2019 publications to get a chance at the \u2018bigger\u2019 ones in future<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018Be as willing to work with a freelancer on a smaller publication as you would on a larger one,\u2019 said Jem.
\n\u2018I\u2019ve found that sometimes PRs won\u2019t want to give something to me because I\u2019m not working on a national for that piece. But PRs that are happy to reply to something smaller are great, and the value in that for the PR is you\u2019ll be the first person the journalist will go to for something bigger.<\/p>\n

Connect with journalists by responding to requests<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018I\u2019d really like to emphasise, from my point-of-view, how to build a relationship \u2013 it\u2019s not about you coming to me, it\u2019s about you responding to me \u2013 that\u2019s where I build relationships,\u2019 advised Lily.<\/p>\n

\u2018If I send out a request via the Responsesource Journalist Enquiry Service<\/a> or tweet with the #JournoRequest hashtag, I will be more likely to come back to you next time if you reply to me with a relevant expert or relevant content. I\u2019ll be much more likely to work with you and your client.<\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s where a relationship starts \u2013 with a response. It won\u2019t happen from you emailing me. It\u2019s the same with freelancing \u2013 cold-calling editors is hard, responding with what they need is better.\u2019<\/p>\n

Give journalists what they\u2019re actually requesting<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018Every good relationship I have with a PR started with them responding to me,\u2019 said Emma. \u2018They found a case study, or they knew of some new tech. I\u2019m more likely to have a chat over what I find useful if you\u2019re helped me out. \u2018You scratch my back, I\u2019ll scratch yours\u2019 kind of thing.<\/p>\n

\u2018Respond to what has been sent out in the request, exactly. Don\u2019t use it as an opportunity to jump to something else. That sounds super simple, but I do get \u2018I don\u2019t have this, but I do have this\u2019 responses. Make sure you do have what I\u2019m looking for \u2013 no tangential jump. And be timely – I use the Journalist Enquiry Service when I\u2019m under a deadline; jump on relevant requests quickly.\u2019<\/p>\n

Brief your clients fully before offering an interview <\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2018It\u2019s so important to make sure that if you sent a press release offering case studies, make sure they\u2019re available,\u2019 said Faima.<\/p>\n

Lily agreed: \u2018It\u2019s really frustrating if case studies and spokespeople haven\u2019t been briefed properly. I understand that things are really busy but if it\u2019s going to work everybody needs to be onboard.\u2019<\/p>\n

Watch the full virtual event here<\/a> for more insight on connecting with journalists as a PR and here are more tips on providing media professionals with the kind of content they\u2019re looking for<\/a> with the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We teamed up with Journo Resources and Freelancing for Journalists for our latest virtual event Building better relationships between PRs and journalists to find out how better connections can make working life a little easier …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":135834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,350,7272,3672,3699,3725,3729],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135830"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135851,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135830\/revisions\/135851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}