Making The New York Times
For any company, positive coverage in
The New York Times
has dramatic
impact. Guardium’s
recent
coverage illustrates just how powerful the paper can
be – beyond sheer bragging rights.
First, positive editorial treatment confers immediate
market credibility. This, in turn, sparks interest from
prospects, as well as newly interested investors,
partners and potential acquirers. Site traffic
soars.
So how does a young company -- without customers
willing to go on the record -- become a trusted
source for The New York Times?
In this case, the coverage was the
cumulative result of breaking news, proven ability to
deliver expert resources and a 3-year exchange of
industry insight and story ideas.
The result: Guardium’s comments were spot-on in
supporting the company’s messages, and insightful to
the paper’s wide audience. And as the only vendor
mentioned, it was a compelling blow to aggressive
competitors in a noisy market.
The Secret Sauce of Securing the Times
The New York Times has been a strong voice
on
technology, security and identity theft issues for
several years. Beat reporter Tom Zeller has kept the
paper in front of its competition, with breaking
stories on the underground cyber economy and the
deep reach and financial motivations of keylogging
programs to steal online users’ personal information –
high-profile stories which also included Corporate
Ink’s clients.
Zeller listens when we call, expecting us to deliver an
innovative story line, and sources that do more than
pitch products. Of course, not every pitch works, but
persistence – and the right content – can pay off.
Here’s what it takes:
- Think national, not technical. Technology
companies of any size can help frame the debate on
national issues such as identity theft legislation and
breaking news. (Features, functionality and product
coverage are reserved for companies whose offerings
are household names.)
For the Times
piece,
we offered an angle on a breaking news hook and a
related trend: a breach of 800,000 names at UCLA,
and the disproportionate number of breaches
afflicting higher educational institutions.
- Speed and relevance matter. Executives
want
personal exposure to big-name reporters and
newspapers, and the value of relationship-building is
certainly worth the time and effort. But when news
is breaking, reporters just need content that will help
them tell the story – including gripping quotes. Using
e-mail to deliver insight means less time for busy
execs and carefully crafted statements that the
reporter can work around.
We created
quotes with Guardium’s executives, with the
understanding that they might not have been
included – just as spoken quotes can be excluded.
The quotes positioned Guardium as the industry’s
thought leader, addressed enterprises’ technology
needs and empathized with victims – delivering what
all parties needed.
- Stay in touch. The ratio of successful
pitches is
far lower for national dailies than for the trade press.
Seeding story ideas with relevant supporting data,
sending related coverage in national and trade press
and commenting on reporters’ stories throughout the
year is the best formula for cultivating a dialogue
that results in coverage. Hit-and-run pitching almost
never succeeds, and can actually damage the
potential for a fruitful relationship.
This story
incorporated ideas pitched previously that didn’t fit
for stand-alone features, but were essential for
telling the broader story around cyber security in the
U.S., including the lack of federal legislation and
the “ho-hum” attention given to most new
attacks.
Making the reporter’s job easier goes a long way,
too. National reporters can come to trust vendor
sources, even from marketing and PR, if they’re
honest about how they can and can’t contribute to
stories.
PR practitioners can position themselves – and their
clients – to become true resources on an ongoing
basis with a few strategies:
- Offer other (non-client) sources:
Pointing the
reporter to legislators, pundits and even other
companies in the space provides sources that can
validate the premise and add important context to
the reporter.
- Recognize the reporter has to sell the story
to an
editor whose job is to sell papers. Building on
big-
picture themes, offering early peeks at trends that
give a paper competitive advantage and packaging
the story up with multiple sources resonates not only
with the reporter, but also the editors.
- Decline to speak on subjects that are outside
the
scope of expertise. Saying no when the story
isn’t a
spot-on fit can actually increase credibility and the
likelihood the reporter will call back another time.
The bottom-line: The New York Times needs
insightful resources, every day, and a surprising
number of the stories that make it into print were
placed there. With the right combination of quick,
creative thinking and old-fashioned media relations,
companies can break in and shape what appears in
the paper that defines news.
2 New Clients
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In Our Corner
“Getting above the noise in today’s technology
marketplace requires a PR agency that understands
your business, is open to alternative approaches, and
delivers both strategic guidance and tireless
execution. Corporate Ink excels in all these
areas.”
—Tim Minihan
senior vice president, marketing
Procuri
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Clients 
