By Melissa A Vitale

​Unless you're a publicist, journalist or CMO, you're likely not familiar with the different types of press coverage the litter the everyday vernacular of a media professional. 

There are three basic types of media coverage: 

• Commentary: Most media coverage focuses on topics, trends and predictions, not material products or brands. However, brands and publicists can still be very valuable for these. Often, journalists are on a tight deadline and need quick, reliable sources to help illustrate an industry trend or give a prediction on a market. Publicists ensure reliable insider insight at a quick turnover rate. These interactions result in brands and their leaders being included in what publicists dubs "commentary" opportunities. It can be a quote in a forecast on a specific niche in the industry or giving consumers insight on how to buy a product in a saturated market. 
• Roundup Inclusion: I'm sure you've read an article like "Best gadgets to trick out your pad," "Must-have skincare for summer," and "The Secrets of Success from Disruptive Entrepreneurs." These are what the media biz calls round-ups! A round-up can be of people, products or brands. There's really no limit to what these can be. I've seen favorite in-office work-out tips from entrepreneurs, dating advice from boss babes, travel secrets from porn stars. If it will get a click and drive affiliate links, there's a headline for it. 
• Full Feature: This is the Mac-Daddy of all PR! If your publicist sends you a full feature one day, don't bother them after 5pm; they're out celebrating! When a publicist says "Full feature" they're talking about an article that is purely dedicated to a brand. There may be a mention of another brand to showcase a larger trend, but overall, the article is dedicated to the client brand. These can be for announcements like funding raises or celeb partnerships, or just because an editor thinks their audience would benefit from learning about a company. A full features ad value can start at $5,000 and can go as high as $250K for print placements. 

All three of the above can also be classified under one of the following: 

• Seasonal: Coverage that pertains to a specific consumer season. Can be as basic as Valentine's Day, Holiday Gift Guide's, or more niche like Election cycles, Football seasons or Back to School
• Breaking News: Stories that include client products or commentary as a result of breaking news. Some examples include, "work from home essentials" in the time of Corona, sexperts commenting on viral celeb romantic-drama, or "AI tools that could have predicted Trump's Win" 
• Timely: It's very rare when a brand gets to dictate a media timeline, but in these cases this type of coverage is considered "Timely." Funding announcements - both stand alone and inclusions in roundups of funding news, new product launches, and collaborations usually fall under timely. 
• Evergreen: This term is thrown around a lot. Anything that isn't seasonal, timely or breaking is evergreen. If it can be published in April or August, January or June, it's evergreen. Examples include: "Best CBD essentials for sleep and stress," "The pleasure products you didn't know you needed" and "Why AI will take over Finance." Brand profiles that aren't tied to a timely or seasonal announcement are usually considered evergreen. 

Dedicated publicists utilize a strategic & nuanced approach resulting in a variety of the above types of coverage over the course of a campaign. 

For brands looking to have regular headlines, be sure to check out MAVPR's suite of services: 
https://www.melissaavitale.com/services.html

By Melissa A Vitale 

Since starting my PR operation, I’ve hence had to remove the messaging “accessible to startups” from of my public-facing branding after one-too-many “Can I be in NYTimes? I have a $500 budget” requests. I try to make PR accessible, but there’s a limit to how much I can do with that. If there's a publicist out there who can make that happen, let's talk! Publicists are paid in retainer because we need to be compensated for the work thats done between coverage, not just for results. Coverage can take to cultivate. 

In fact, now, in my sales pitch, I make sure to express that PR is the least immediate of all marketing efforts to avoid boxing myself into unrealistic expectations. I warn clients that there could be up to two months before coverage is published. Course they'll see work beneath the surface before then, but for the reasons I'm about to break down, a successful public relations campaign can take months to unfold. 

For one, we’re asking for feature coverage for absolutely nothing in return. While you may be paying a publicist retainer (and get quoted at global PR firm to get a sense of normal PR costs), brands are not paying journalists, and cannot ethically. That's why advertising and editorial is separate! It's also why press coverage carries more weight when compared to advertisements in the eyes of consumers.  

Just because a brand wants press coverage doesn't mean the editor, outlet, or journalist has time or resources to cover the brand. A journalist may be excited about a brand today, but won't be able to profile them for six months. Every outlet is beholden to advertisers and audiences for dictating their coverage. Not publicists and brands they represent. Sometimes, outlets are only allowed to cover niche subjects like VICE industries once every six months! If a particular magazine covered cannabis in June and a CBD brands starts in July, they may not have potential to be considered for four months at that specific publication. 

Another thing to consider: budgets! It's no secret subscriber-ship has decreased across the board. There's only so much money to pay journalists & there's only so many editor salaries a publishing house can afford. Sometimes, editors love a brand, but already planned out their commission budgets for the coming months and need to pause on evergreen brand profiles. 

It's the publicists constant pitches, calls, networking and schmoozing that keeps a brand relevant in the time between coverage opportunities. 

Publicists balance the interlude between full features with inclusions in stories that are already being written. If your publicist has become a reliable industry source, they will often have media coverage come to them - by way of journalists letting them know the stories they're currently working on that may be a fit for their clients. This way, before a full feature, the publicist can have a brand in a number of stories to maximize a media campaign. 

Getting a story secured is only half the wait: Pending any national crisis, seasonal and evergreen media coverage can have a two-to-six week turnover time from the time a journalist submits the story to their editor until the story is published. Once an interview is wrapped or a product is sent to a journalist, the writer still needs to compose their story. Once the article is submitted by the deadline, editors need to review and revise the piece to fit the audience and message the publication is trying to convey. Usually there's a Section Editor (Lifestyle, Beauty, Culture, Health, Tech etc) who, along with editing dozens of pieces a week, determines the order and priority of the stories submitted by all their writers. 

Typically there's also a Site Editor who dictates the number of section pieces that are permitted in a given month, newscycle or quarter. For instance, The Culture Editor may love CBD oil, but is only permitted two CBD stories every 6 months. In the same vein, there may be restrictions to how many sex-positive or cannabis-friendly stories go up in a given timeline. If there was a time-sensitive vice story one day, it may push an ever-green story about cannabis or sex a few days. Site Editors make these decisions based on audience reading patterns and what will drive the most traffic to any given story. 

The four-plus people (Journalists + editors) involved in creating every article are also humans! They have sick days, they take weekends, they are even allowed to go on vacations! They're also not just editing the story you're included in. They likely have 5+ other stories they need to attend to, today! 

A dedicated publicist will keep up to date with both interest, secured and pending coverage as well as the politics of informing clients, thanking journalists and continuing to cultivate new story ideas to keep a campaign moving along. 

While press coverage does take the longest compared to other forms of marketing, but the results are often more impactful on potential investors, consumer loyalty and overall brand trajectory. 

By Melissa A Vitale 

Sometimes I am convinced my clients think I have all the power in the world. The ability to control humans, bend wills and to control minds. 

As much as I like to tell myself in my mirror in the world, I am not queen of the world, nor do I possess any un-earthly abilities that they haven't written about in PR and business books. 

I'm obsessively organized. I'm reliable. I keep things simple. I think of solutions before they're needed. I anticipate needs and plan for delays. But there's only so much that is in my control. 

Some things that most publicist's cannot control include: 

• Breaking news & 24/hr newscycles: Did something just happen that took over headlines on every website? A celebrity death, a political upset, a civil rights case, a national protest, a pandemic. Journalism's resources are far from unlimited. If there's something that audiences will need to know about, journalists must immediately table what they're working on to focus on the most pressing issue. If not, their readers will go somewhere else to get the updates they need. Publicists thinking that their clients' beauty products are more pressing than the quieting universal consumer confusion are bound to lose relationships and be branded as tone-deaf.  
• Editors' & journalists' schedules: Did a journalist reschedule your interview multiple times? Did your meeting or deskside get canceled last-minute? That's unfortunate and I know they feel bad about causing any inconvenience. Maybe in 20 years of PR, I'll have a reputation that no one will cancel on my clients, but frankly, it's my understanding of their schedules that makes journalists want to keep working with me. While I try to anticipate everything, and will double-confirm all client meetings, there are still things that come up that journalists need to cover that is more timely. They literally report on what's happening in the world. It's not them, it's media! 
• Editorial Guidelines/Website capabilities: Many outlets have editorial guidelines that dictate what they can and cannot feature. Some business magazines won't feature companies that are publicly traded outside of the NYSE. Some entrepreneurial magazines won't feature companies that are publicly traded at all. When the magazine makes these decisions, there's nothing a publicist can do except burn relationships.
• Editorial delays or holds: Sometimes an editor cannot dedicate the time to a story as originally planned. They may have shifted focus momentarily or had a more time-sensitive project come through. This often comes down to time and money that they can dedicate. There's only so many hours in the day and publications can only commission so many stories a month. A publicist can try to bitch, complain or persuade but again, the more understanding, the more likely the story will be revisited once there's resources to dedicate to it again. 
• Client error, missed deadlines, or lack of deliverables: Just like I am not responsible for an editor's schedule, I won't be held responsible for my client's. Again I anticipate and plan ahead. I allow buffer times for all my client's deadlines. If my client passes the padded deadline, I followup often excessively. If at that point, they still miss deadline for deliverables or written interview, it's in God's hands. 
• Editor/Client Oversight: Every publication has criteria they require to cover a brand. Sometime's its a minimum of funding, other time's they only want to feature marginalized entrepreneurs. If an editor or client fails to tell me something that disqualifies the client from coverage, there's nothing I can do. Like your lawyer, I can only plan and control for the things that I know.
• Editorial Error: The members of press are humans too and humans make mistakes! Not only that, editors look at thousands of words a day. They edit niche stories so they have obscure spellings saved to their dictionary. They're also looking at a brand for the first time in a story. They don't know who a brand is, how their co-founders' names are spelled. MAVPR can notify and request changes in cases of editorial error, but we do not maintain the responsibility for someone else's actions. 
• Sales resulting from the article: Read all about that here. 

For those things I can control, MAVPR is proud to have built a reputation for being a reliable source despite our clients' manic schedules resulting in regular press coverage in the biggest names in media today.