HOW TO GET YOUR STORY TOLD

Several years ago, when the nation was in the depths of the pandemic, there was hardly an article we could write that didn’t bring the impact of Covid-19 into play. Even though the public sector was still delivering tons of services, collecting taxes and trying to create affordable housing, everybody we talked to about these topics would bring in questions of how they were being impacted by the pandemic.

We were disheartened by the terrible toll the pandemic was taking, but, frankly, tired of being drawn to its ramifications in most of what we wrote – whether in the realms of human resources, budgeting or technology.

More recently, we’re experiencing much the same phenomenon with the fast-growing advent of artificial intelligence. Surely AI is changing the world around us at a rapid clip, but it’s not the only thing that’s going on in the public sector. Just yesterday, we were interviewing someone about leadership academies for an article we’re working on now – and before we knew it, the conversation had somehow morphed into one about AI.

Then there’s the relentless news that flows from the federal government. It’s so hard to escape that increasingly people are writing about a phenomenon called "news fatigue”.

So how can states and local governments get a word in edgewise, when the big story of the year tends to crowd them out of the public eye? Here’s a list of recommendations for those of you who speak to reporters or researchers who want to write about your government:   

1)   Speak directly and honestly. Government officials who are trained to deal with the press (actually just about anyone who is trained to deal with the press) have learned to skirt questions asked so they can answer entirely different questions of their choosing. At various times we’ve had media training, and this is exactly what we’ve been told: “Don’t worry about the question you’re asked. Just answer the question you wanted to be asked.” There may be some logic to this, but it’s a really good way to avoid being quoted at all. When reporters are putting together an article about a particular topic, they’re disinclined to let you bring them down another road entirely.

2)   Don’t allow your public information officers to take over the show. It’s stopped being a surprise to us when we seek a conversation with an elected or appointed official to write about something positive that they’ve accomplished, we find ourselves blockaded by gatekeepers who make us jump through a series of hoops. This is particularly unsettling when we’ve talked to that source in the past, with no problems, but now they’re being protected so effectively that we struggle to get to them again (even when there’s a deadline involved for us).

3)   If your press liaison sits in on the interview, try to do the talking yourself. You’re the one who the reporter will want to quote, not your press person

4)   It’s fine to say “I don’t know.” That’s way better than making something up. But if it’s possible to follow up with written answers to the questions you couldn’t answer, that’s a terrific approach. (And by the way, if you promise to send more information after the conversation, don’t forget to do it!)

5)   Don’t rely on press releases to get your story across. Our own e-mail boxes are full of so many releases every day that it’s impossible to ferret out all the stories that we would want to tell. And in hopes that this doesn’t sound boastful, we suspect that we review story ideas more carefully than most other journalists do.

6)   For years, we’ve talked about “adopting a reporter,” a device that we’ve seen work for some very smart public officials.  By this we mean that a personal relationship with the people at the news outlets you would like to report your story, goes a long way to getting attention to it.

7)   Tell stories that provide concrete examples. Speaking in broad generalities can sometimes be helpful, but actual real-life stories are inclined to make the message you want to get across come to life. It’s always been a source of frustration to us, when we seek a clear example from the real world, and our source can’t seem to provide one.

8)   Speak in plain English. Jargon is bad enough and acronyms can be impenetrable. It’s easy when you’re living in a world in which acronyms are understood by everyone in your immediate circle, to think that everyone knows what they mean. But that’s not true. (In fact, it’s relatively common for a source to be unable to even tell us what the mysterious letters in the acronym stand for).

9)   If you’re late for an interview, that’s fine and happens every day. But if you’ve limited the time a reporter has access to you, don’t show up late and then tell the reporter about the hard stop you have in ten minutes.

10)               It’s OK to ask for questions in advance, but it’s better to ask about general topics to be covered. Good interviews flow from the information you’re providing, and a prescribed list of queries just inhibits that.

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