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"When" Matters;
Understand and Respect Deadlines
By Mark Devaney
Director of Public Relations, GráficaGroup
March 28, 2002
 One of my old supervisors, a guy who knew the news business, once dropped a press release on my desk and said, "This is approved and ready to go. The ad trades should pick it up. Get this out tomorrow."
"You're dead in the water," I said promptly.
"What do you mean? This is a good news story. I know they'll cover it," he argued.
"You're probably right, but it's Thursday night. The ad trades went to bed already. You should know better than that."
And he should have, but the fact that even PR executives could be oblivious to publishing cycles indicates one of the biggest problems in public relations — we need to know and respect deadlines. In that case, our client had a good story, but not good enough to stop the proverbial presses, and sending out the release that late in the week would have severely weakened the press play of the story. Eventually, they all listened and two weeks later, the story ran prominently in Adweek, which was one of the primary targets.
Blood, sweat and tears
It's a shame to think of the blood and sweat that goes into getting a press release approved turning quickly to tears because of an ill-conceived distribution plan. Part of the problem is that we get too caught up in the dictates of our clients. We want to please them, so we overpromise...very dangerous. We're not in the fantasy business. PR people, contrary to popular belief, are in the reality business, and nothing's more real than clocks and calendars. Yet one of the simplest mistakes we can make is to not be aware of the time of day and day of the week.
Clocks and calendars
Here are some tips for staying ahead of deadlines:
- Monthlies usually need three months' advance notice. That's a ¼ of a year, a long time. Forever for the anxious client who wants coverage yesterday. Don't talk about those targets or talk as if you can get those targets unless you're building in a reasonable sense of timing. As for clients, the PR "pro" who tells you he can get you into next month's Wired magazine is either a liar or just plain stupid. Either way, it's a signal to run away and find someone who knows what he or she is talking about.
- Weeklies usually need at least a week's notice, but even that's cutting it too close. Three weeks ahead of the publication date is the latest you should be pitching stories. A good way to keep yourself honest is to cull all potential editorial calendar opportunities into a timeline and then routinely pursue them a month in advance. But if a release takes too long for approval (and they almost all do), and you have only a week, recall the aforementioned anecdote, and pitch early not late in the week at least.
- Dailies are best reached in the AM. That's not rocket science. It only takes a few editors barking, "Not now I'm on deadline!" to teach a PR person that 4:59 PM is NOT a good time to suggest a news story. And just because a daily is a daily, don't think a week's notice won't help. Many daily reporters have long-term projects on the backburner, so pitching them to suggest trend stories is a good way to stoke their imagination.
- Web sites are something of an exception. You can blast a press release out over a newswire in the morning and get coverage in a variety of well-trafficked Web sites, and that's a beautiful thing. However, relying on Web coverage alone because you mistimed your hard copy distribution is half a victory. Yes, I know, a Web clip is just as good as a print clip (and I really do believe that), but most clients ultimately desire print clips and clients pay the bills.
- Broadcast coverage is a function of how "hot" your news is. It takes an important story to move news vans or a top-notch spokesperson to get placed on a radio call-in show. Again, such programming is either scheduled weeks earlier or erupts spontaneously, which requires two of the most important characteristics of a PR person: you must be a good long-range planner, yet be able to turn on a dime.
So while public relations people don't punch a time clock, clocks and calendars can punch them. Not paying attention to what time it is on the clock or what day it is during the week can kill your campaign before it breathes — that's why they call them deadlines.
Mark Devaney is the Director of Public Relations of GráficaGroup, an integrated marketing communications agency based in Chester, New Jersey. Gráfica specializes in multichannel marketing campaigns for its clients in industries ranging from telecommunications to utilities to finance to healthcare. He's a Board Member of the PRSA of New Jersey and a published commentator on interactive communications, high technology, and manufacturing. Devaney has also taught writing and literature at Rutgers University.
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