A journalist contact of mine posted something on LinkedIn last week that made me smile, partly because it was perfectly timed for Valentine’s Day and partly because it nailed something I’ve been saying for years.
Her premise was simple: Making a journalist “love” you isn’t that different from building any other relationship.
Valentine’s Day might be over, but if you’re in PR, every day is a relationship day and this advice is useful long after the cards are recycled.
Jane Hamilton, who writes for The Sun and The Times on work, careers, life and business, has kindly given me permission to share her post below unchanged, because it’s worth reading properly.
Especially if you’ve ever wondered why some people get quoted again and again… while others disappear after one appearance.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day … how to make a journalist love you in five simple steps.
By Jane Hamilton, journalist for The Sun and The Times
And it’s really not that different to a romantic relationship.
- Get to know them and their ‘beat’: This is the areas they cover, the titles they write for, the days they publish. Even a little knowledge shows you care – and puts you ahead of the pack.
- Show them some love: Acknowledge some of their work you’ve seen before that you enjoyed. Maybe even offer a thank you when they do use one of your clients in a piece. Just drop an email note – it shows good manners and will help them remember you.
- Build the relationship: Interact with their socials, repost their work if it’s relevant to you. I even enjoy (relevant) chatty emails from PRs I know (or am getting to know) as it’s a human way to talk in-between pitches.
- Stay faithful: If you’ve promised them an exclusive or a certain case study, don’t offer it elsewhere until they reply. If they don’t reply, set a deadline then move on.
- Remember a relationship is a two-way street: Journos and PRs can work well together – but you won’t click with everyone. Nurture those relationships which are healthy and work well, and invest less time in the ones with red flags.
My thoughts...
What struck me most reading this wasn’t that any of it was revolutionary.
It’s that most people still don’t do it.
Journalists don’t want gimmicks. They don’t want endless pitching. They want clarity, respect, responsiveness and people who understand how the relationship actually works.
Which is exactly why the whole conversation around fake experts has bubbled up recently. When trust breaks down, everyone loses. When it’s protected, the same names keep coming back for the right reasons.
And that’s also why I’ve just opened applications for Press For An Expert – Guru.
It’s deliberately small. There’s one expert per category. And it’s built around a simple idea: being useful beats being visible every time.
If you read Jane’s five steps and thought, “Yes, that’s how I work. That’s how I show up”, then it’s probably worth checking whether you’re genuinely media-ready.
The first step is the Go-To-Guru test.
No pressure. No guarantees.
Just an honest sense of whether you’re the kind of expert journalists actually come back to.
And Jane, thank you for saying out loud what journalists have been quietly telling us for years