Fiona Bailey is the kind of PR who believes she knows how to deal with reporters. Well, she knows how not to deal with them. So Fiona, who runs a British PR consultancy, Pebble Communications, has drawn up a 10-point lists of no-nos for PR people when handling reporters who are calling to inquire about "something negative" involving a client.
1) No comment! (abruptly)
2) Off the record (naively)
3) I want approval before you print it (imperiously)
4) Don't say I told you but (quietly)
5) He/she/it's lying (boldly)
6) You didn't write that down, did you? (hopefully)
7) Look, I'm offering you an exclusive here! (indignantly)
8) You'll just have to wait (arrogantly)
9) It was an accident (apologetically)
10) Some people just like to complain (wearily)
I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been on the receiving end of each of these at some time in my career. My best-ever PR response when chasing a story was, "It's news to me. Then again, no-one here tells me anything."
(Via 4networking.biz)
