A major part of public relations is working closely with journalists. These relationships help drive awareness and coverage for clients. They are essential to their business goals and objectives.

To build and preserve good working relationships with journalists, it’s important that clients of PR agencies understand a few important things. By being prepared for the following, PR professionals and their clients can optimize and streamline coverage opportunities.

Journalists don’t want to repeat your crafted messaging

When reporters interview clients, they typically already have an angle for the story and interview. Journalists are not there to parrot company messaging. They want to unearth something new, timely and relevant for their audiences. It’s their job to have a unique, interesting angle to a story to share with their readers.

As a PR professional, it’s essential to prepare clients with appropriate language to cater to the journalists’ questions without sounding overly practiced or scripted. Oftentimes, journalists will have done their background research on the client and company. So, clients should assume the reporter has basic information and give them more specific and interesting details that cannot be found on the company website.

PR professionals can request interview questions in advance. However, sometimes journalists will not share questions before the interview. In this case, PR professionals can ask journalists to share the angle of the interview so they can ensure their clients have relevant information prepared for the interview. This caters to journalists’ desire to secure relevant, accurate information and also ensures PR professionals can prep clients on how to address reporters’ questions authentically without simply reciting company messaging.

Reporters likely won’t let you review the whole article

As much as we would like to see articles in advance, reporters rarely share full drafts before publication. If PR professionals are worried about inaccuracies in articles, they can ask to review the quotes used ahead of publication. Sometimes, journalists will share quotes with you prior to publication without being asked, especially if they want to ensure the article is accurate. However, this doesn’t always happen. Therefore, if PR professionals want to review quotes, they should request this early in the process so the journalist can prepare and avoid any clashes with deadlines.

Clients should be aware of this process before the interview. PR professionals can inform them that while they can request to see the article in advance, the likelihood of that happening is slim. If there happens to be factual problems and inaccuracies in the final, published piece, journalists can amend their articles for accuracy, if necessary.

Journalists need bios, headshots and graphics

Journalists will often ask for supporting materials like bios and headshots of the people quoted or interviewed. Clients should have these materials ready for PR professionals to avoid confusion or bottlenecks with the journalists, in the event they’re working on a strict deadline.

In some cases, journalists will also require hero images, which the client or PR professional should be ready to provide. These often need to be exclusive, one-of-a-kind images to accompany the article.

Journalists sometimes request additional sources

After a journalist interviews your client, they may request to speak to other people to back up claims made by the spokesperson. For example, if the story focuses on the benefits of a company’s software, they may ask to speak to a customer.

As a PR professional, it’s important to understand upfront if the reporter will need additional resources. Organizing these interviews and connecting reporters with resources can take time and can delay publication if not handled quickly.

In some cases, your client may not want to connect a journalist with a customer. If this is the case, it’s essential to know this early in the interview process so the journalist is aware. This can impact their ability to write the article.

There can be a long lead time for coverage

Journalism is a fast-paced industry. However, coverage can be delayed. PR professionals should set expectations with clients that they may have to wait to see content publish.

As a best practice, PR professionals can ask journalists when they think the outlet will publish their story. In some cases, this decision is made by their editors. If a publication date isn’t clear, routinely check the outlet for the article, and be sure to share it with the client as soon as possible.

Making clients aware of how journalists work helps set expectations and ensure there is no confusion when building these relationships. As a result, you can streamline the interview and publication process, making it easier for everyone.