Never Tell a Journalist It’s Not a Story

Is the CEO or P.R. person the best to face the cameras in a crisis? How do P.R. reps get into journalists’ good books?

Daily Mirror editor Peter Willis gave the lowdown at a recent PRWeek’s Crisis Communications conference.

Asked what advice he’d give a PR facing a journalist who is acting aggressively, Willis said: “Journalists are going to ask difficult questions and the important thing is to just be pleasant, not patronizing.”

“I think one of the worst things I hear is when I’m told it’s not a story. We’ll decide if it’s a story. That really puts you on your guard and rubs people up the wrong way.”

Interviewed on stage by BBC comms director John Shield, Willis discussed the importance of having “a relationship with the journalist before a crisis erupts.”

“My own experience as a journalist is, it’s a lot harder to write about people you like in a negative way. If you don’t know them then you can just go for it, to be frank.”

You can read the rest here.

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