Ten Things You Should Never Say to the Media

Readers of The Bad Pitch Blog Offer Some Advice

Posted by Ken Wheaton on 11.28.07 @ 12:54 PM

Believe it or not, this is not simply another round of me pooping on the PR profession. Kevin Dugan over at The Bad Pitch Blog asked his readers to come up with Top 10 Things You Should Never Say to the Media. And while it seems like something ripe for snide comments, the list is full of practical, helpful advice.

Better yet, it offers good value. A couple of the items actually offer multiple tips. No. 1, for example, from ZoomInfo's Kari Hanson, bans the following from your vocabulary:

Sorry, we're only briefing top tier media on this news. Don't want to brief them? Don't pitch them in the first place.
We'll give you a local exclusive on this. The WSJ is doing a piece, but we don't view you as competitive. There are ways to discuss this scenario. This is not one of them.
Since you didn't cover us after our last meeting, you really owe us a story. They do not owe you anything.
I saw an interesting piece on CNET and thought you'd be interested in doing a similar story. There are exceptions to every rule, but the CNET story's old news. You better have a great angle to suggest an editor revisit the topic.
No executive is available to talk about this. But it's big news, trust me. You are the weakest link. Goodbye.

Much more where that came from. Go read the whole thing.