Not every client or employee is equipped to deal with the media on an intimate level. When I was a journalist, public relations contacts would sometimes sit in on interviews I conducted with company executives. In most cases, the public relations department was there to lend support — as either a confidant, or a source of additional information. In other cases, however, it was clear that the executive needed his hand held because he could not handle on-the-fly questioning alone. But media training can help clients and company employees prepare for encounters from journalists and interviewers. (Read more…)

Q: I need to send out a press release that includes graphics. But many public relations pros say not to send out press releases as an attachment. What should I do? (Read more…)

Kelly Larabee is one of my favorite public relations contacts, someone who can help a lot of people in the PR industry simply by sharing her knowledge. I decided to just fire away at Kelly with some questions via email. As many of public relations pros know, this is the kind of interview you want — essentially one on your terms. Unlike being under the gun while on the phone, television, or radio, a written response to interview questions allows you to set an agenda and take time to polish your answers. Take a few minutes to digest her ideas because what she has to say should be very helpful to anyone in public relations. (Read more…)

Surfing the web this morning, I came across an interesting interview on Talking Biz News with Hope Heyman, a senior vice president at Edelman (http://weblogs.jomc.unc.edu/talkingbiznews/?p=2096). Heyman has been in the public relations business for more than 25 years and she also worked as a business journalist. The interview touches on a number of facets regarding the relationship between public relations practitioners and business journalists, and Heyman’s insights should be required reading for any PR department or newsroom. (Read more…)

Since entering the world of public relations, my workday has changed drastically from the time when I was a professional journalist. Becoming a public relations consultant has altered how I deal with the media and how I deal with internal public relations at my company. (Read more…)

Arizona is probably best known for three things: the Grand Canyon, sports, and retirement communities. Arizona doesn’t exactly top lists when it comes to notable businesses and the media moguls. Jeremy Pepper is a public relations professional who cut his teeth in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco during the dot-com boom, working for both new economy and old economy companies. (Read more…)

The following is a look at one week in the life of an ex-journalist–i.e., me–and the public relations headaches and hurdles I had to deal with. There may be some happy stories in there as well. Think of this a little look behind the scenes for public relations professionals wondering how their work truly impacts those writers and reporters they spend their workweek wooing. (Read more…)

When I was a journalist, I once wrote a negative news story about a major company, and unfortunately there was a slight problem. I was given a quote by the company, which addressed the issue at hand in a very roundabout way. I included the quote in my story, but it was subsequently eliminated during editing. (Read more…)