I was at a conference last year that had a session on “social media press releases.” In essence this form of release is intended to provide reporters with an interactive and user-friendly way to get information, audio clips, photos and videos about a story in a one stop shopping format. By providing this type of release, as the theory goes, a reporter would have everything at their fingertips to prepare the story without having to play telephone tag with you to get additional details, photos etc. As usually, when you hear these ideas at a conference they seem to fall just below Einstein’s Theory of Relativity as ground breaking, cutting edge genius.
Archives for reporters
I was on the phone yesterday with a college president I know who asked me if I or anyone in my Fire Department ever encountered an “Ambush” journalist at the firehouse front door. She had been confronted by a TV consumer complaint investigative reporter who does a segment a few times a week about viewer problems. The reporter and camera crew were waiting for the president to arrive at work.
I look for your war stories about this posts topic. In my estimation, when dealing with the press, “Off the record” is usually “On the record.” 
Many, many years ago when I wanted every reporter to be my friend, I was in the sports industry. I was serving on the committee of a boxing dinner that among others, was honoring promoter Don King. Obviously King has had controversy follow him his entire life, and especially in the 1980’s, was great fodder for the press.
