Presentation from our first PRSSA Workshop "What you can't learn in the classroom"

1. Things You Need to
Know That You
Won’t Learn in the
Classroom
PRSSA Workshop #1

2. PR Lingo
• COB—Close of Business. Often used in deadlines.
• Hit—Media coverage
• Editorial Calendars--schedules that magazines and other
publications will distribute a year in advance going over what
each issue is going to cover
• lead time—period of time that reporters and producers need to
prepare stories and information for publication or broadcast
• Pitching– can be used for presenting an idea to the media, or
presenting ideas to a client in the hopes of winning business.
• Sweeps—also referred to as media monitoring, search the
media for coverage of your client or issues related to your
client.

3. PR Lingo Continued
• Boilerplate—a brief paragraph stating who you are, what you
do, and how you do it, usually used as the first paragraph in a
biography or last paragraph in a news release
• Masthead—list of editors, publishers, and senior reporters in
each publication's issue. It includes an address and telephone
number
• Wire service—news stories, features, etc., sent by direct line to
subscribing or member newspapers and radio and television
stations
• Reach—geographic area of the audience and the number of
readers, listeners, or viewers who can access the media in any
region
• Impressions—the number of people who may have seen an
article, heard something on the radio etc.

4. Know the media you’re
pitching
• Before a pitch, DO YOUR RESEARCH
• KNOW:
• How the reporter/outlet likes to be contacted
• Why would your story interest the reporter and their readers?
Know the audience.
• What types of stories does the reporter’s outlet run?
• Research deadlines
DO: the earlier you pitch the better, make sure it’s timely, provide
additional information or a way to get more information, start with
an email pitch
DON’T: pitch to traditional media via social media, follow-up*,
bribe reporters, send email pitches at odd hours

5. Useful websites and
research tools
• Factiva
• Nexis
• Quantcast
• Cision
• America’s Newspapers

6. Media Lists
• Include: Outlet, prefix, first & last names, title, email,
phone
• Create document in excel
• Double check for misspellings/mistakes
• Cross check Cision with outlet websites

7. Backgrounders
• Include:
• What event or promotion the backgrounder will be used for
• brief biography of reporter
• brief summary of the outlet they work for
• examples of their works (if possible choose articles that
relate to your client)
• Rate how they cover your client/issues related to your client
as negative, neutral, positive

8. Coverage Reports
• Index page that includes
• Article title
• Author
• Date published
• Brief summary of article
• Include full text of the article, hyperlink to index
• Include chart with number of impressions