Bottom line: There’s nothing wrong with following up with reporters after first contacting them about potential stories. But don’t go overboard.
You finally listened to my advice about publicity and media relations.
You proactively reached out to a reporter or media outlet about a legal dispute or case that you’re working on in the hopes of shining a public spotlight on the case or telling your client’s side of the story.
But now what?
Chances are when you contact a reporter — which almost always, the first time around, should be through email — you are not going to get a response within the next few minutes or few hours.
Typically speaking, reporters are busy just like you and I are.
They’re busy writing or researching their articles.
They’re out on the street doing interviews or conducting some other kind of research that pulls them out of their office.
So I wouldn’t worry about you not getting a response relatively quickly after you email or call a reporter.
But what happens after that?
How should you handle your follow up?
My advice is, generally, to wait 24 to 48 hours before I follow up with a reporter with a second email.
So your first email is the introductory email informing them about whatever you want to inform them about. And then 24 to 48 hours later, I would use email again to follow up.
And then after that, if I had not heard back from the reporter, I would wait another 24 to 48 hours before following up with a phone call.
You have to remember that reporters are inundated day after day, and really, hour after hour, with PR pitches.
The vast majority of PR pitches are not going to be what a reporter is likely to cover. Thus, reporters are inundated with essentially meaningless emails which clog up their inboxes.
As a result, your (perhaps) valuable email might get lost in the shuffle. So you’re going to need to follow up with reporters.
But you should be careful to follow up in a way that does not agitate them or give them a bad impression about who you are and what you are trying to do for your client.
And when you finally get to the point where you should be following up with a phone call, you should be brief and say something like:
“Hi [so-and-so]. I emailed you yesterday about a lawsuit that I think you would be interested in. [Describe lawsuit]. I’m not sure if you saw my email. If you did, do you have any questions? If you didn’t see my email, I can forward it to you so it’s at the top of your email inbox. I can follow up with you tomorrow or the day after.”
(This is not necessarily an opportunity for you to have a 10–15 minute conversation. You want to just direct the reporter to your pitch email and to the information you sent him or her. Let them digest it on their own time and then get back to you.)
You want to be polite.
You want to be respectful of a reporter’s time and deadlines pressures.
But you also want to advocate on behalf of your client(s).
Now, you might notice that this 24-, 48-, 72-, or even 96-hour follow-up window could be a problem if you have some kind of breaking news that you’re concerned is not going to be as newsworthy a day or two later.
My solution for this problem is to reach out to a reporter ahead of time. If you’re filing a case on a Monday, reach out to a reporter the Wednesday or Thursday before to give a heads up. If you’re filing a motion on Friday, reach out the Monday or Tuesday before.
You want to give reporters as much time as possible—and that’s feasible based on your legal strategy—to get a feel for what this story is about or the
reason why you’re pitching them.
When you reach out to reporters ahead of time, you want to give them enough time to do their research and reporting so that when the timing is finally right because of the court filing, they will be able to write a substantive article that isn’t a 300-word, quickie, online-only blurb.
I recommend that you limit your follow-ups to no more than a handful. If you haven’t heard back from a reporter after a few communications, they are likely not interested.
By being smart and strategic about how you follow up with reporters after pitching them, you will hopefully avoid agitating them and negatively impacting the relationships you may want to begin building with them.
Bottom line: There’s nothing wrong with following up with reporters after first contacting them about potential stories. But don’t go overboard.
Wayne Pollock is the founder and managing attorney of Copo Strategies in Philadelphia, a national legal services and communications firm. Attorneys and law firms enlist Copo Strategies to engage the media and the public regarding their clients’ cases (to help resolve those cases favorably), and to engage the media, referral sources and prospective clients regarding their firms (to help bring new client matters in the door). Contact him atwaynepollock@copostrategies.com or 215–454–2180.
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