How to communicate with a journalist

Journalists are often very busy and have little (or no) time to look through your email or listen to your pitch. We aim to give you a short guide on how to ensure the journalist understands your pitch and most importantly remembers what you say through email or over the phone.

Before starting on this journey, always remember one thing. Singapore journalists and any journalist for that matter, are just people like you and me. Don’t be intimidated, nor feel that they owe you something because you have a company. Treat them with respect and they should reciprocate in kind.

Want to learn how to respond to a media query?

This article will focus on two scenarios when you’ll likely engage a journalist; when you’re responding to a media query and secondly when you reach out to them.

Responding to a journalist query

The media is often on the lookout for great stories, so

• Understand the query fully
  • We often rush through emails, because we’re busy
  • However, the benefits of reading through and giving it a thorough analysis will pay off in the end
• Timeliness
  • If the news is relevant to what is the current trend or in the news now
  • A story about ‘How to save water’ is relevant after the government announced an increase in water prices
• Who’s affected
  • The number of people who will be affected by the story is often a key indicator of the story’s newsworthiness
  • A food festival that is open to the public is much more newsworthy than a closed-door food tradeshow
• Locality
  • Singapore-focused stories matter
  • Journalists in Singapore rarely care if the news doesn’t impact Singapore
• Famous people matter
  • If you have someone of prominence or celebrity status, use that as a hook
  • If Joseph Schooling endorses your product, the media is likely to care more about it
• Uniqueness
  • If the story is unique or different, the media may be interested in covering it
  • Often ‘Singapore’s first…’ or ‘The World’s first…’ garners media interest
• If all else fails, there is always human interest
  • Any story that evokes strong emotion may garner some media interest
  • The media often devote some news space a week for interesting or offbeat news, so this may fall within that

Find out what makes your brand story newsworthy

Newsworthiness is often unique to each publication, but the list provides a good starting point to help you identify what makes a good story and how you can shape your story to fit as many of the criteria as possible.

Speak to our consultants now to find out how to get your brand story heard. Contact us at hello@syncpr.co

Last updated 5 June 2020.