When Not to Pitch a Story
By Arthur Solomon for PRNews
Israel’s response to the terrorists attack by Hamas raised important questions for people in our business:
- Is it bad judgment to continue pitching stories about fluff products like candies, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and other non-essential products, when all aspects of the media are covering the Israeli-Palestinian situation almost 24 hours daily?
- Or should PR people follow the dictum “life goes on” and continue pitching as if everything is coming up roses?
- Is it a waste of time to pitch a fluff story during a crisis?
- Are there times when pitching a journalist should be avoided, and if so, for how long?
The answers to those questions should, in my opinion, be obvious:
- Yes, it’s bad judgment to pitch “feel good” or fluff products pitches during the immediate aftermath of a major breaking news story.
- While life does go on, the sensitivities of people being pitched must be taken into consideration. Do they have family living in the war zone? And, if so, are they preoccupied with their safety? Will they feel that you’re an uncaring person when pitching a story about why a #10 pencil is better than a #9 one when people are dying?
- Yes, it’s a waste of time to pitch a story in the first few days of any disaster, because the news budgets for “filler stories” will be drastically reduced. (And let’s be honest to ourselves. Very few stories PR people pitch are hard news stories that news outlets need to survive.)
- Yes, there are times when pitching stories should be avoided, sometimes for an extended period.
Unlike PR pros who have worked as a journalist prior to entering the public relations business, and know when not to pitch a story, many PR staffers have never stepped inside a news room and certainly don’t know the workings of a newsroom during a major breaking news story.
What often happens is that reporters can be temporarily recruited from other assignments to help with the breaking news coverage. That’s what happened during my days as a journalist. Today, with reduced staffs at many news outlets the temporary reassigning of reporters is probably worse.
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