How not to annoy B2B journalists and get more press coverage

Back in my days as B2B journalist, I was once told by someone I was interviewing for a feature that I should be doing my bit to boost the market.

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

They wanted me to write a positive piece about their area of the market. It’s the sort of comment that would have me rolling my eyes.

Why? Because putting a positive spin on the market wasn’t my job as a B2B journalist. I’d be doing a disservice to the readers of the magazine if I didn’t set out what was happening in the market – good, bad or otherwise.

Misconceptions about a journalists roles are common and those sort of requests not unusual.

My response was always the same, I would politely talk about maintaining the integrity of the publication by presenting an accurate view of the market. And they would always agree that that was an important thing to do.

It didn’t always stop them trying the same tactic to steer the editorial in a direction favourable to them another time. Sadly.

Tiresome tactic

But this tactic never worked, it was tiresome and didn’t serve longer-term relationship building.

A B2B journalists job isn’t to do your marketing for you. A feature or news story isn’t an advertorial, it’s not a brochure.

What a journalist is trying to do is find out useful and interesting information for their readers.

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The reason some people get quoted more by journalists

Even before Boris Johnson became Prime Minister he was a journalists’ dream. Why? Because as soon as he opened his mouth a colourful quote would come out.

Close up image of a desk with a smart phone and a hand holding a pen writing in a notebook
Photo by Chivalry Creative on Unsplash

Regardless of what you think of his performance as Prime Minister or London Mayor he has a way with words. And OK so it can backfire on him – often spectacularly – but there is a lesson here.

It isn’t always about what you say, it’s how you say it.

Back when I was B2B property journalist, there were popular market features for which it wasn’t difficult to find industry experts to comment.

In fact, you’d find that a lot of people wanted to give their view on what was going on.

Deciding who to quote

The challenge, for me, was deciding who best to speak to or quote – there was always a limit.

For example, I might have two people who said something like: “Deals are taking longer to conclude at the moment”.

And then another who says: “Getting deals over the line is like kicking a mattress up a hill.”

Who do you think I would quote?

The point is, you can stand out from the crowd by not just saying something interesting but saying it in an interesting or colourful way.

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What journalists look for from expert sources

Screenshot 2019-06-05 at 13.19.06Having been a B2B journalist and editor for 20 years I often get asked for the inside track on life as a journalist, what ‘we’ are looking for and how to get quoted.

I was interviewed recently by specialist communications agency LexRex Communications for their blog, specifically about what journalists look for from expert sources which are pretty much the life-blood for those working in B2B press.

You can read what I said over on the Lex Rex website.

Related reading:

Learning to teach my first content writing workshop

Why engagement is an important part of content marketing

Why you should park the ego when writing B2B content