Tips On Dealing With Local Media

[jbizz]

Steve Dannemiller, vice president of the California Indoor Tanning Trade Organization (CITTO), was recently contacted by a television station doing a story on teen tanning. He invited the reporter to visit his salon, showed them the software controls and proper consent forms, and gave a balanced view to the reporter’s story.

While being interviewed for a news segment like this can be intimidating—especially with the knowledge that the reporter will probably be interviewing a dermatologist or two—don’t let your emotions get the best of you.

Click here for a few tips from Dannemiller on handling local media.

[jbizz]

bump. Definitely worth another read since many news outlets are in search of news during the slow summer months. I was recently contacted by a local reporter doing an economic piece about Phoenix-area salons. Has anyone else been contacted by the media?

[Ezliving_Jim]

I have had more experience with print media. Simple concise specific answers to the reporters questions is better than running your mouth. Plan on making 2-3 "soundbite" statements that you would like to see in print. You might get lucky.

It has seemed to me that the meat of the story, the slant, was outlined or written before the reporter got to me. They were looking for "quotes" to fill out their story. I was not going to change the slant of the story. All I could do was show my business and myself in the best possible light.

In one case, the more positive direction I took in an anti-tanning salon article ended up with a more positive sidebar and photo caption.

It has also helped us to have an attractive swimsuit model available for their photographer. The goal of the photographer is different from that of the writer. The photographer wants to create nice quality art and they like to work with a friendly photogenic model. Our photographers always wrote their own photo captions.

My college courses up to my Junior year were towards a Journalism B.A. and I interned as a reporter for United Press International (UPI) one summer. Try to make the reporters' job easier. Write down the names (correct spelling) of everyone involved in the story or photographed. Remember, the reporter is always on deadline.

Be nice and personable. The reporter doesn't want to make you look bad but the slant of the story may be negative towards you because their editor wants it that way. They are just doing their job and they really do want to do it well.

I always followed-up up with a phone call and email after the story, no matter whether I liked it or not. You want to be in their Rolodex.