This media veteran reveals how startups can get better media coverage

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Political commentary site The Middle Ground folded in late October last year, citing a lack of funding, while Singapore Press Holdings is accelerating plans to lay off 230 staff. These events hold lessons for organizations looking to leverage the media for publicity.

The old model is dead. In truth, it has been dying for a while, but many organizations still treat media relations like it’s 1997.

Here are the six things that have changed over the last 20 years that startups must be aware of when planning your communications.

Be a partner

If you were in a large company 20 years ago, you could have pitched your announcement to a local newsroom and been fairly certain that you were going to receive favorable coverage. But now, even if the old top-down model still applied, media organizations simply can’t afford to respond to every press conference invitation. If you’re a startup, that job is even harder. Sure, Singapore has a vibrant startup scene, but that just means reporters have a large pool of stories to choose from.

As a reporter, I look out for the same things investors do: stories that make me go “wow.” You can’t just claim to be unique; you must be unique. Ideally, you would also have a track record as a dragon slayer, where your startup is winning in a David-and-Goliath-style battle against competitors.

Maybe you’ve signed on some mega corporations as customers and are eating other mega corporations for lunch. You may also have a big name individual or corporate backer. In essence, you need to help me justify to my readers and viewers why I picked you for coverage.

Ask yourself: What unique feature am I pitching to investors? Chances are, this differentiator is also going to be interesting to the media.

Go easy on the perks

You would think that supporting media with soft dollars would increase their propensity to publish your story. To some extent that’s true. Reporters still get handed gadgets (which they can keep) to review. They are still sometimes flown to the US or European HQ of an MNC to cover a story. I recall one of the first press conferences I attended in Singapore in 1997, where participants were handed gift bags from Tiffany’s. I was one of the very few who declined.

As a reporter, if I can’t see it, touch it, or use it, I’m not going to be interested.

But reporters these days are far more principled than 20 years ago. They might accept your cash, but they’re definitely not happy about it. Don’t expect any free kicks. That said, as a startup, you must be prepared to give the reporter a free trial so that they can experience your app, platform, or gadget for themselves. As a reporter, if I can’t see it, touch it, or use it, I’m not going to be interested.

But you also need to manage the relationship proactively. If the reporter who is trialling your product or app doesn’t write a review or writes a negative one, stay engaged to find out why and possibly find a solution to their concerns. You can also embargo the release of their review but, for obvious reasons, you can’t make reporters sign non-disclosure agreements. Be sure your business isn’t threatened if the embargo is breached, as there are no laws forcing reporters to honor embargoes.

Shorten your media pitch

In this context, the word “pitch” does not refer to an elevator or investor pitch, but a pitch to the media. As a journalist 20 years ago, it was not uncommon to produce just one story per day. You attended a press conference at which lunch was served, and an expensive door gift was handed out when you departed four hours later.

These days, you can be grateful if the reporter even reads your pitch. This means you need to be much more concise, much more newsy, and don’t bother attaching PDF documents to emails which the reporter can’t read easily on his/her mobile phone.

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