Public Relations: Five steps to improve media coverage

Doing more and bigger deals than anyone, announcing a major deal, or being an expert on development or commercial leasing does not in themselves insure good press coverage, or for that matter, any coverage at all. That is because media is a competitive market where editors are the buyers, sometimes identifying the news and ideas themselves, but more often than not, evaluating proposals that come from journalists, publicists and real estate companies. It would be nice if all of those news stories and ideas came in naturally to editors and sometimes they do as long as journalists nurse their sources well, scour city records and attend real estate events to find the biggest and most noteworthy deals, the inside story on the newest projects, that new trophy hire, or the latest trend in sales, leasing and finance. But more often than not, these same journalists need a lot of help from real estate businesses and their publicists. That is where the competition for attention begins. To get media coverage of your business in this fast-moving market, here are five steps you must take. 1) Look for the news and story angle as well as the message you want to get across; 2) Timing is everything. Get your news in early and respect deadlines; 3) Understand the media you are pitching so you do not waste the journalist's or your own time; 4) Offer a newspaper the story exclusive to them only; and 5) Assure the story is not lacking key details. Harry Zlokower is president of Zlokower Company and immediate past president of the New York Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, New York, N.Y.