PR pros spend a lot of time thinking about journalists. We draft and edit pitches, schedule and attend briefings, and obsessively check online reporter pages waiting for their articles to publish.
Bospar also values talking with reporters about their work to better understand their thinking.
Politely Pushy, Bospar’s podcast hosted by Eric Chemi, has already featured in-depth conversations with such respected working journalists as Nathan Bowser, Adrian Bridgwater, Lydia Dishman, Todd Eury, Sharon Goldman, Neil C. Hughes, Larry Magid, Michael Nunez, Mary K. Pratt, Sean Silcoff, Evan Schuman, Nicole Spector, Walter Thompson and Jeff Wilser.
Now I’m leading the charge to amp up this effort with even more interviews with reporters across local news and leading tech, business, healthcare, pharma, consumer and other media outlets.
Starting with local news
Our reporter outreach recently yielded an interview with Tucker Caraway, news producer and Saturday anchor at Redwood News. Tucker gave Politely Pushy the inside scoop on her newsroom experience, how smaller teams are using AI, the digital platforms that are reshaping how they cover local happenings, and what makes a PR pitch resonate with a local reporter.
In renewing Politely Pushy’s commitment to digging deep with reporters, local news felt like the right place to start. Local reporters cover a wide range of stories for audiences who notice when something doesn’t fit their community, and the pitches that land with them look different from the ones that land at a national business outlet. Tucker shared that intel and more with Bospar.
You can listen to the full Politely Pushy podcast episode here.
Why turn the mic toward reporters?
The relationship between PR pros and reporters should be symbiotic, but far too often it runs parasitic, with PR professionals sending steady streams of uninspired pitches that don’t actually match what reporters cover. Bospar is continuing its work to change that.
The best way to do that is by sitting down and actually learning from reporters about their approaches, day-to-day demands and the industries to which they have dedicated themselves.
Podcast conversations give us the time and space to do that. It also provides reporters a platform to talk about their work, their beats and the state of their industry in their own words.
What this means for our clients
Stronger relationships with reporters lead to better matches between our clients and the press.
The more we understand about a reporter’s work, the better we can connect a client’s story with the reporter best suited to tell it. That understanding includes:
- the beats and story angles a reporter is actively pursuing
- the audience they write or broadcast for
- the sources and materials they need, whether that’s data, customer voices, visuals or a spokesperson available on short notice
- their deadlines and how their newsroom operates day to day
- what makes them pass on a pitch
With that context, PR teams can avoid spending time on outreach that goes nowhere and focus on conversations with reporters who are genuinely interested in what our clients have to say.
What this means for reporters
This series is as much about supporting reporters as it is about serving our clients.
Newsrooms are running leaner, and reporters are covering more ground with less time.
PR teams can either add to that load or help lighten it by supporting great stories.
That doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, understanding and a lot of listening.
Our goal with these podcast episodes is to learn from reporters what they actually need from PR teams and us that intelligence to better serve those journalists and, in turn, our clients.
What’s next
The new episode with Tucker is just one of many. Look for our future podcasts with reporters across more beats, industry domains and media outlets in the coming months.
To catch new episodes as they’re released, subscribe to Politely Pushy on Spotify.
Find past Politely Pushy episodes on our podcast page.
And if you’re a reporter who’d like to join the conversation, email me at Stacia@bospar.com.
