Being an advocate for developing relationships with media contacts (see No. 8 of my Top 10 Marketing Tips – Take a Reporter To Lunch), I ran across some good pointers on dealing with reporters and editors that were shared by a panel of PR professionals at a meeting of the Legal Marketing Association’s LA Chapter a few months back.

The panel discussion was reported in an article by Lisha Aquino that appeared on Findlaw’s Law Firm Marketing site, and are worth sharing here:

• Determine appropriate reporter(s) and editor(s) to contact at a publication,
• Learn the reporter/editor’s preferences regarding preferred method of contact (e-mail, phone, or fax), time of day (morning or afternoon), and day of the week,
• Know and respect deadlines for various publications,
• Try to get face-to-face meetings,
• Always return reporters phone calls promptly (if not sooner),
• Think before you speak (after an “oops”, it is too late to say that’s “off the record”),
• Don’t ask to proof a story before it is published (it is okay to “offer” to review any quotes attributed to you prior to publishing however), and
• Never say “no comment” (if there is bad news, deal with it in a straight forward and professional manner. I am not a proponent of volunteering bad news to the media. However, if the story is likely to come out anyway, it is better [just like a good litigator does in opening arguments to the jury] to put your positive spin on it before the story breaks).