 Have you ever had an interview with a journalist, either written via email or verbal, over the phone or in-person, but when the piece was published, your quotes and insight were excluded? Welcome to Public Relations. This is something that happens more often than any publicists like. It’s one of the tradeoffs we face because we’re relying on relationships, not advertising dollars, for coverage. My own clients and even I have been cut from interviews, so don’t feel bad if this has happened to you. Keeping a few things in mind when responding in an interview will help you reduce that number.
As per journalism ethics, journalists, editors and producers need to source expertise from brand founders to support the topic of their story. Say you run a skincare company that features Hyaluronic Acid in every product and a journalist is writing a story about Hyaluronic Acid. Unless they are an expert in the ingredient themselves, they need quotes from an expert to support any claims they make. If they say, “Hyaluronic acid is a great ingredient,” they need an expert to explain why that is the case. Before you tell me, “Melissa, I may run a company but I’m not the foremost expert,” please, give yourself a little more credit. Experts in media typically mean someone with any authority on the subject who can explain in a 101 format for readers who know nothing about the subject. You don’t need a degree to be considered an expert on a topic. You may not be ready to teach other startups how to run a company, but having started your own brand, you can offer expertise on what it takes to start a company. Providing commentary or quotes is often “in consideration,” meaning it has the potential to be excluded based on the direction of a story. Often times, commentary is excluded from publication for reasons even the most seasoned publicists cannot control. These reasons may include but are not limited to:
However, there are times when answers or commentary is excluded because it simply isn’t relevant to the conversation. Because mainstream outlets won’t cover brands in standalone stories regularly, making the most of every media opportunity is paramount. Providing insight for a trend story or roundup is also a great jumping off point for a relationship that brings future coverage. A journalist will continue to turn to you for insight once you’re considered a reliable source. If your quote was excluded from an article or segment, another opportunity may not come around for six or more months with that journalist. If you continue to give commentary that isn’t relevant, the opportunities from that journalist may stop altogether. By keeping a couple of things in mind while crafting your quotes, you can reduce the number of times your commentary gets cut from stories you could speak to. Of course, you may still face exclusion due to media politics, but the number will be greatly reduced by following these guidelines. Answer the Question in your Answer At any given moment, journalists are often working on multiple stories with three-to-four sources per story. If on a time crunch, journalists don’t have time to fill out a quote. Journalists need to quote complete thoughts, so when you don’t repeat the answer in your question, you’re only giving them half a quote. Journalists often ask leading questions that hopefully allow your answers to be the quote themselves, but the question won’t be shown in the article. The journalist is hoping your quote will be enough to stand alone. By saving the journalist time filling out a complete thought, you avoid your answers being cut because of a time crunch. For instance, the answer to “What are the benefits of Hyaluronic acid?” should start with “The benefits of Hyaluronic acid are….” Whereas, just listing the benefits isn’t a full quote and if included, will be provided with the dreaded [sic], which signifies that’s exactly how you said it. It makes you look like you don’t know how to write or speak a quote. I always beg journalists interviewing my clients to please not [sic] them, especially for grammar. Short & Sweet Journalists can source two-to-five sources per article. SEO pieces could include up to 20 sources per article. This is how journalists provide complete and unbiased reporting. But for this reason, it makes concise answers all the more important when responding to a media opportunity. If a journalist gets eight sources commenting on a topic but only needs a fifteen-word quote, they might not even read a paragraph with eight or more sentences. Keep your answers concise. If the question can’t be answered shortly, break it up with separate thoughts, or in a written interview, with a carriage return or pressing “Enter” on the keyboard. Diversify your answers Unless you’re speaking as an expert in a niche area, answers to questions usually don’t need to be more than three sentences. Try to dedicate only one sentence to a thought. Keep each thought unique. Journalists are often puzzle-piecing commentary from a variety of sources. Having unique points betters your chances that your insight is complimentary to the other quotes provided. Take your Ego Out Like many things in PR, providing commentary for a story is more about helping a journalist out than it is centering your product. If your entire quote is all about your brand, but the story is on a trend in the industry, your quote is not going to be relevant. Journalists often want to promote the brands that help them out, and they will include a description of your company and usually a link in your title. It’s far better to leave your ego out of your quote and provide non-branded expertise. Sure, you won’t get quoted talking about how wonderful your brand is, but you will establish yourself as a vital industry source, which can often carry more weight than a favorable mention. The big exception here is when your product or service is an example of the trend the story is about. Have a Title (and Website) Ready Once you have an opportunity to contribute to a story, have a title ready for them that you send over with your responses or you send before AND after your interview. If you don’t include before, after, or with your interview, you may miss your opportunity to get quoted if you miss the follow-up email requesting this. Your title should be the name you want to be known by your brand, your pronouns, a link to your website, and a brief description of what your brand is. I also include a link to a drive with brand images in the title. This way, everything the journalist needs to drive traffic back to you is already given with your quotes. If you don't have a website yet, you're going to want one once you start getting press mentions. Site editors are less likely to link to social media handles because it's so easy to change the name, which results in a dead link for them. Even if it's just a landing page with links to your social media accounts, it will help streamline all your traffic from press mentions. Give a Quote or Schedule an Interview BEFORE the Deadline Most of the time, journalists are sourced from multiple experts. They're also working on other deadlines. If three of four experts have returned commentary for one piece, a writer may start their draft without waiting for the last source to return insight. Get your quotes in well before their deadline to make sure your insight is considered! Getting your insight in earlier will also give you a chance to lead the article’s direction because your insight will stick with them longer. The same goes for scheduling an interview either by phone or broadcast. If you wait until the day of their deadline, they may have already found someone. In media, it’s not always about expertise but who can help them out so they can move on to the next story or free up their schedule for potential breaking news. This list is not definitive, and due to the nature of organic media coverage, there is never a guarantee your quotes won’t get cut (unless the story is about you). If you’re still confused on how to form a great quote that doesn’t get cut, you can always read trend stories by your favorite industry reporters to familiarize yourself with the style of quotes editors and writers look for.
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