Aric Press, the Editor in Chief of The American Lawyer magazine, offered several tips to lawyers and marketers as he spoke at the program “How to Work Effectively with the Media” at the Law Firm Marketers’ Roundtable sponsored by LexisNexis and Mealey Publications in Phoenix, AZ on November 3, 2003. Based in New York City, Press is the editorial director of American Lawyer Media’s national publication group. He is a former senior editor at Newsweek, where he worked for 19 years.
He offered the following rules that law firms and marketers should follow when dealing with his publication and the media in general.
1. Read the publication. “Before you decide to reach out to a media outlet, you should read the publication. We all have certain missions by which we define ourselves, and if you know it, that establishes credibility on your part.” Your story pitch might not be appropriate if you don’t know the editorial focus. “Calling me with an article by a leading securities lawyer on Sarbanes Oxley is just not part of our focus.”
2. Have a relationship with the magazine. “This way, the first time you have to call the media there’s some prior knowledge,” Press said. “You want to know who’s on the other end of the telephone when you call. If I know you somehow, I’ll take you more seriously when I pursue your question.” This doesn’t mean he will honor a request to kill a particular story, “but you’ll have a chance to speak up.”
Press gave the example of a lawyer at an AmLaw 200 law firm who became notorious for “aberrant behavior” at a law firm retreat. “We had the story cold. In our first call to the law firm, they said that ‘this never happened, we never had a retreat.’ In the second call they said ‘how dare you call us about this.’ The reporter was sharpening his knife and it was going to be fairly ugly. Then I got an apologetic call from the chairman of the firm. He said that ‘yes it did happen and that the underlying cause was that he had a nervous breakdown.’ “Because Press knew the chairman he pursued the information and ended up not publishing the lawyer’s name in the story. “The fact that I did know the chairman and took him seriously was very useful,” Press said.
3. Choose your messenger with care. “I’m surprised that law firms decide to choose messengers that they wouldn’t trust to deliver a message on a bicycle. You can’t have people talking on behalf of the firm that are incompetent, whether they’re inside or outside spokespeople. It behooves you as you hire outside consultants that you ask questions about what they know, their track record, what’s their reputation,” Press said.
As a corollary to that rule, Press added that “it’s good not to paper us with junk press releases. The worst is the call I get saying, “I just saw your story about a trend, and we have something very similar happening here right now. When are you going to write about this again?” The answer is usually “before the next solar eclipse.” The better call would be “we have something different going on here.”
Press said that publications also do not want to get follow-up calls to press releases, which they’re probably not interested in to begin with. “We understand you’re under pressure to make the call; to the extent you can avoid this, I welcome it,” he said.
4. Give notice you’re opting out of a survey. “When we send out surveys it would be good if you read them and responded,” Press said. “If you are choosing not to participate, it would be helpful to send us an email saying you don’t have time.”
5. Know the publication's time elements. Your first question should be “by when do you need a response?” The news cycle is continuous now. “If there’s an opportunity to capitalize on something you’re going to miss it if you don’t understand the reporter’s deadline,” Press said.
6. Use your most likeable and articulate people to pitch a story idea. “It’s very rare that I spend an hour with a lawyer who has something to say where I don’t learn something. We’re in the business of meeting and talking to people. I can’t emphasize enough how appreciative I have if you send around people with an idea to share,” Press said.
7. Assume you’re on the record while you’re talking to the press. “When I talk to one of your lawyers, I assume everything’s on the record. It’s no good calling me two hours later and to tell me that everything was off the record. This happens all the time.” If you establish up front that we’re talking “on background,” this means the reporter can use the material but not attribute it to you. If you’re talking “off the record” it means they can’t use the material unless they discover it through another source. “But the assumption is that, like in a court room, everything is on the record,” Press said.
8. Realize you’re not in control. “The biggest problem that lawyers have is the emotional question of who’s in control. Lawyers want to be in control of any and all situations. That’s fine, I respect it, I’m married to a lawyer,” Press said. “But in a media situation, the lawyer isn’t in control.” The lawyer can’t control whom the media calls or doesn’t call, which the questions they will ask and in the end how they write the story.
9. Don’t lie. “If you decide to lie, please decide in advance how easy this lie can be found out. It’s not helpful that you say something and we find out otherwise. Please, it’s insulting, it’s time wasting. If a couple of phone calls will make it clear what’s really going on, don’t do it,” Press said. “It’s such bad form to be found out that easily, that it’s not worth the effort.”
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