How to improve financial media relations in 2014
Our annual survey of personal finance journalists has uncovered three "pain points” for financial media relations teams to reflect on as they prepare for 2014. Addressing these potential issues should ensure PRs maintain constructive relationships with Personal Finance journalists, rather than being seen as an obstacle to overcome or avoid….
Pain Point 1 – Appearing overly defensive when handling criticism
Journalists who rate companies unfavourably for overall press relations criticise them for acting defensively towards media enquiries when presented with negative news stories.
Conversely, there are positive comments made about organisations who are willing to speak openly about any topics they are presented with.
Here’s one example of what not to do:
“They’ve had so much poor press yet they still don’t really seem to have learnt from it. And when we approach them with requests, even if it’s not necessarily about a negative thing, they’re very reluctant now to comment in the media, which is not really the aim of a press department. (Trade Press)
Pain Point 2 - Handling PR team changes poorly
Journalists value the relationships they have with financial companies’ PR teams and individual members of the team. Companies are being marked down for not communicating when established PR personnel have been replaced by newer staff.
“Over the last 18 months to 2 years they have lost a lot of people in their PR team, it doesn’t seem to be very coordinated. That is partly because they are building up the whole UK business across the board, and so they are not as well supported as in the past. It is not as it used to be. They have some good people there but they are stretched thin, they used to have half a dozen people, they have now got two which is not enough for what they need to cover. It is too much for two people for a big company” (Freelance Press)
Pain Point 3 – Not making it clear who is the relevant PR contact (and how to get through to them)
A common criticism from journalists is where financial companies lack a clear and identifiable PR contact who they can get in touch with and how to do so.
“I’ve tried to contact them about things in the past and they’ve not responded and not been very helpful. They need to have a clearer website showing you who you need to contact and outlining who the relevant media relations people are and those people need to respond to emails and phone calls. I don’t ever receive press material from them so they could be a bit more proactive in contacting us about what they’re doing, setting up meetings or giving out press releases that would be good” (Trade Press)
