Media Madness

With media outlets shuttering and reporter beats expanding, getting our clients’ stories told continues to be a challenge. The good news is PR pros are resilient, creative, and smart. In this episode we talk about all the ways to navigate this wave of media madness with success!

 

Transcript:

Michelle Kane (00:02):

Thank you for joining us for an episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves like me. I'm Michelle Kane, my company is VoiceMatters, and I'm here as always with the wonderful Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. How are you?

Karen Swim, APR (00:19):

I am doing great, Michelle. How are you?

Michelle Kane (00:21):

I'm well, I'm well, thanks. And I'm kind of excited about our topic today. Oh, what the heck. I love all our topics, but we're just going to focus on media madness. You know, it's been really kind of a bummer lately. All of these outlets shuttering, BuzzFeed, Vice, Fox, no, Vox is still happening.

Karen Swim, APR (00:40):

Vox is still there…

Michelle Kane (00:42):

Let's not put that out there. .

Karen Swim, APR (00:44):

But hey do rely on donations. They do great work by the way.

Michelle Kane (00:47):

They do, they do. I think it was Vulture and it's, I mean, not only is it sad when good outlets are just closing down due to finances, but it kind of makes our job as PR pros more of a challenge, especially if you are working in sectors that would pitch often to those outlets or just rely on them, and as news consumers for covering areas of our world that really need that kind of coverage. So we just want to chat today about “Hey, how's it going with your pitching?” And how can we best adapt to this in service of our clients? So fun .

Karen Swim, APR (01:37):

Yeah. And we don't want to trot out the same, like, don't only push the lever of earned media. It's really about the landscape is pretty ugly right now.  And in some sectors, it's slow. It's not that you're not going to get coverage, but things take a lot longer than they used to. And part of that is due to the changes that have happened in the media landscape. People not having always one assigned beat. They're covering multiple beats or publications using a lot of freelancers, and so they don't have people on staff. And then people just being bombarded, probably a little burned out, and a little scared also because they have many attacks against their income sources. You know, freelancers have had to go with the California fallout and that cut their income because they could only work so many stories before they were considered to be employees. I mean, there's just been a lot in media over the past several years. Now there's the AI thing, and I will say that it's not just about outlets and journalists. What I'm seeing, and I'm sure that you all are seeing this too, is that there are fewer and fewer quality stories.

Michelle Kane (03:03):

Mm-hmm. . Yes.

Karen Swim, APR (03:03):

So really to just general topics. I'm not talking about covering politics or the economy. Those reporters have a beat, and the publications that do that work still do it very well. And you get high quality stories. The long form reads are still great stories. You know, The Atlantic, they always do a nice job with their long form stories. I'm talking about those day-to-day news stories. I'm finding that the quality is so shallow and it's just, it's like, okay, why did you even bother to write this? It's almost like they're just filling, you know,

Michelle Kane (03:44):

Filling unsold ad space.

Karen Swim, APR (03:46):

Say it. Yeah. It's, it's not great. Yeah.

Michelle Kane (03:49):

And yeah.

Karen Swim, APR (03:51):

And so when it comes to clients, in terms of finding quality places to tell those stories it may have shifted. I think one thing is that we have to remember that even if your expertise is not in internal communications, that there is a place for the PR pro to ensure that those stories are not only being told externally. Think about the stories that you can help your clients to tell internally. Which is vitally important in these times as companies are dealing with reductions in force. They're dealing with talent recruitment. They're dealing with policies that may be shifting. They may have some employee discontent, the Great Resignation, all of the things that are happening at work, internal stories are part of how we can truly help to impact our clients' businesses. And them being able to leverage that and to strengthen their employer brand is, is as important as driving revenue to the bottom line with those external stories.

Michelle Kane (05:06):

Yeah, that's so true. And you know, I know many companies, especially larger corporations, are very good at their internal comms, and they know how to fold it, you know, to weave it throughout and, and they realize the importance of their internal audience and how they can both strengthen the external view of the company, but also to create that community within. I think that's incredibly important. And  of course then sometimes those communications can be used on both sides. We've talked about this a lot, right? Does your website have a newsroom? Do you tell your stories in other ways? There are all kinds of creative ways to tell a story about maybe an employee that also talks about you - operate all these things that can affect those deciding to do business with you or to raise your profile.

Karen Swim, APR (06:05):

I think one of the things that I'm actually enjoying a lot more of lately also is realizing that companies that have strong internal comms teams, because in big companies, you know, they slice and dice those roles very specifically. They are approaching it with a complete insider's view. We bring that external view again, you know, one of the values of solos. And so sometimes we bring things that are creative in different ways that they may not have thought of because they're seeing it from within the company viewpoint, and they're seeing it from that lens, and we see it from a broader lens. And so working with internal teams gets them in excited and energized about things too. So yeah, in our work, we've been working across more departments and bringing them into some of our external things and then supporting their internal things as well.

And it's really brought out a different element. And it's great to see the executives excited about having their team supported, but it's also great to see how excited people get to work with someone new and to do things a little bit differently because they're getting this different perspective. And of course, it's fun for us because we get to work with more people in a company and we get to go deeper in our value proposition. So, you know, don't forget that that's another way to tell the stories is to Right. Enroll more people to collaborate with you from the internal teams and think outside of the box. It doesn't always have to be PR and marketing. It can be the customer success team. It can be, you know, um, specific to a persona. For example, if one of the personas, targets, people work with it, someone to develop it and tell stories and think of different ways you can do it. Think about owned media, podcasts, you know, branded podcasts for companies that you can help them to staff guests. You can even, and I did not realize how easy this was. So I will raise my hand and say I learned something through a friend who created her own streaming show that's on Roku. So I subscribed. I did not know it was so easy to just do your own production.

Michelle Kane (08:33):

That’s so cool.

Karen Swim, APR (08:34):

You can set up a streaming show for your client. If you have a client that loves video and, and maybe is doing YouTube and they want to do more and they want to take them to a different level, level look into streaming.

Michelle Kane (08:47):

That's phenomenal. And I love what you said about working across departments because it's the best of all worlds, right? Because it's true. We come in and there are things we don't know. So, we can pick up on story ideas of topics that come up that they might just blow off or think, oh, well no one cares about that, but wait, certain audiences do. And then working across all these different departments, they're the ones that know the the depth of what they do and they will bring to light wonderful topics and things that, that can be expanded on and brought to light.

Karen Swim, APR (09:28):

Absolutely. Absolutely. It does. Again, working across departments gives you richer content to work with externally too, and it helps to keep you aligned and you do, you learn more about the company when you tap into more than one source of information, it really does help us to be much more effective at our jobs and we can pick up on things that are exciting externally that people take for granted. I love that there's always a surprise. There's always something. It could be a bit of information, it could be, you know, a personal story and you're like, wait, that the media would love this and Right. Really? .

Michelle Kane (10:12):

Exactly. And you're just like, yeah, . And then of course you hope the person's willing to share and all that good stuff. But yeah, it's, it's really exciting and energizing when that does happen. I know I'm in the discovery phase with the client now, and it's just been wonderful to hear their insights and things that, you know, even if I thought long and hard would never have come to my mind. Yeah. Just because I don't serve in their role. I don't know everything.

Karen Swim, APR (10:41):

I know it's one of the joys of our job, right? I think that when we're actually doing the work, we're all in our happy place. Like it's just, we get to do the coolest things. Being a communicator is one of the best jobs on the planet.

Michelle Kane (10:53):

It is. It is. You're part teacher, you're part psychologist, , part therapist, part town crier, part, grammar nerd ,

Karen Swim, APR (11:04):

Definitely all of the things

Michelle Kane (11:06):

Rolled into one ,

Karen Swim, APR (11:08):

All of the things .

Michelle Kane (11:10):

So, so yeah. You know, we - even though the landscape is ever-changing - we don't ever want you to feel frustrated or demoralized. If anything, and I think it's also part of the DNA of the role that we serve. It's like, okay, that's not going to get me down. How else can we do this?

Karen Swim, APR (11:33):

Because the media landscape is going to continue to shift. And one of the underlying themes to all of this is money. Media shifted away from subscription models with the internet and everything was free and accessible, and they switched to advertising models. And advertising dollars have kind of dried up. There's, everyone's not advertising anymore. And then a lot of people took the initiative to create their own media companies. So you had more and more outlets that were out there competing for attention, for eyeballs. And now people are trying to go back to subscription models. So you see things like sets where there's certain stories you can read for free, but then you have to subscribe to get everything right. You know,

That's a great source to also tap into for stories. But I just think that because the models are all over the place, like how many people are you really going to get to subscribe to just individual stories rather than an entire outlet that's filled with a variety of stories? Yeah. I, it could work for individual creators to have enough interest to sustain them, which is, I think is fabulous. And I'm always here for writers taking charge of their income and, and having ways to be directly paid by their audiences, because I think that's an important avenue. But as a media business model on its own, it's probably not for way to go.

Michelle Kane (13:11):

No, I don't think so. You probably think of something like a Substack, which many writers are setting up, but as far as trying to get our client stories out, it doesn't quite align. Doesn't quite line up. So yeah. I wish there was an easy answer to it.

Karen Swim, APR (13:32):

Yeah, there's not. There's digging and searching for reporters that are a fit regardless of where they write, you know? Searching for people that will best tell your client's story and tell a rich story. Trades are just the lifeblood, I think, for so many of us because they deliver. They may not all be tier one outlets, but they really deliver on the promise. You can find your audience with trades, and you can get quality stories, you can get byline opportunities. They're still doing the work.

Michelle Kane (14:08):

Yeah.

Karen Swim, APR (14:08):

And it's harder to get into tier one unless you have hard news. And so when you're dealing with clients, most clients don't have hard news all the time. They just don't. So you have to work with what you have to work with. Media relations is still very viable. It's not dead, folks. Right. It's still doable, but it is important to start to be creative and think outside of that box and expand a little bit, even if it's expanding in the types of opportunities that you seek and the type of outlets that you pitch. If you've never added podcast in, you might want to add podcast into the rotation. If you've never thought about your client putting their expertise into a book, um, or Oh yeah. They don't have any own media channels of their own, you know, start to think about those things as well.

Michelle Kane (15:00):

Yeah.

Karen Swim, APR (15:01):

That’s another one. Add different ways of thought leadership into the, into the mix.

Michelle Kane (15:06):

Agree, agree. And like with anything, manage those expectations. That's those teachable moments because we all still have those clients that are saying, get me on the Today Show. Yeah. . Yeah. Which we have to just, you know, calmly say, well now what exactly are you expecting to accomplish ?

Karen Swim, APR (15:28):

And I mean, sometimes success can also, you know, we have a client and we just did a campaign and we delivered way above and beyond what was

Michelle Kane (15:43):

Of course you did.

Karen Swim, APR (15:44):

And then we started freaking out, like, oh my God, we hope that they don't expect this every month. Because it's not going to happen every single month like this where it's just explosive coverage and, you know, so it's funny how we do that. We kill it and then we're like, oh my God, we killed it. Are they going to expect every month? Because I’d die if we have to do this every single month.

Michelle Kane (16:07):

It's just not feasible. You don't want to fire hose an audience either. So Yeah.

Karen Swim, APR (16:15):

Not pitch, don't anything. Way more stories than we were supposed to be. No more pitching. No pitching.

Michelle Kane (16:23):

I'm all pitched out. And, you know, honestly, that's where other items like a podcast or thought leadership articles, that's where it can fall nicely into that mix so that you are not,

Karen Swim, APR (16:38):

You have to mix in the, the longer term opportunities. Although these ways, everything seems to be a longer term opportunities, but

Michelle Kane (16:45):

Yeah. Right.

Karen Swim, APR (16:46):

You want to get the shorter term things, but you want to focus on the long game too, and things like podcasts, you pitch them, you're not always going to get immediate responses. You will not always be able to book guests within the week or the month. Some shows have seasons, and they may already be booked up for the season and be booking well into their next season, which could be later this year. It could be 2024. We all know the long lead publications and then just in general, you know, so it's good  to have a mix of opportunities that could hit at different times because agree, our goal is steady Eddie, rolling thunder. You know, we want to keep building, building, building.

Michelle Kane (17:29):

I love these names. Keep going. . No, it's true. It's true. And, uh, as I couch them, you know, these opportunities to talk about yourself, you know, as a business, you want them to be valid and, and to be in a variety of places, it's always going to serve you well.

Karen Swim, APR (17:50):

Yeah. And I mean, I'd love to hear from Solo PR Pros who are doing anything in the metaverse because it's been declared dead by many media outlets, but I have definitely seen some success stories from people who are doing really creative things there. So, I realize that even Mark Zuckerberg has now stopped talking about the metaverse, we're not hearing anything about it. I believe that they pulled jobs away from that sector. But if you're doing something there and you're doing it for your clients, we'd love to hear about it, because that's a topic that we've not addressed here.

Michelle Kane (18:28):

That is true. Yeah. We would love to hear your stories and honestly, we want to hear your experiences in general. How are you finding things? Please let us know. It's soloprpro.com because we would love to take all of your input and talk about this again. It's going to be an ever-changing topic that we can come back to from time to time. But if you found this time valuable, which we hope you did, we thank you for spending it with us, please do share this episode around. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.