The Gong Blog

Topic: Media Relations

3 emerging trends in media relations for 2024

In the past five—scratch that, two—years, media relations practices have changed drastically. Once-reliable tactics, now outdated, are in dire need of reevaluation to ensure they remain relevant in today’s evolving landscape. For media relations practitioners, staying ahead of the curve is not just an advantage, but a requirement when it comes to keeping your clients happy and future clients interested. As newsrooms continue to shrink and technology evolves faster than you can say “dystopian”, the strategies for engaging with reporters are adapting just as quickly….

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Publish or Pass: Insights from Richmond-Area Journalists

This fall, the Hodges team hosted HodgesCon, an all-day learning event with guest speakers for staff to learn from and engage with. I moderated a morning session with local journalists who shared perspectives on how they cover the news and how to best work with them. Ian Stewart with VPM, Eric Kolenich with the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Brendan King with CBS-6 joined the Hodges team for a look inside their workdays, how they cover the news and how to best work with them. Some of…

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Crisis Communications – and why it’s NOT one size fits all

In the face of unexpected challenges, organizations must be prepared to weather the storm with a robust crisis communications plan. At The Hodges Partnership, crisis communication is not a one-size-fits-all approach; instead, it is a tailored strategy designed to address the unique needs of each crisis and organization. A tailored approach At Hodges, we recognize that every organization is different, requiring a customized crisis communications plan. By immersing ourselves within the team that is dealing with the crisis, we quickly learn any nuances or unique…

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Keep calm (drop everything) and start pitching during a media relations crisis response 

When Mercy Chefs, a Virginia-based disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization, springs into action at a moment’s notice, our account team follows suit with an all-hands media relations approach. Most recently, the team — known for its quick response and dedication to serving hot, chef-prepared meals during natural disasters and national emergencies – provided aid to Maui after wildfires ravaged the community of Lahaina. Mercy Chefs is currently serving thousands of meals a day, and it’s our job to make sure that the world knows…

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Managing Expectations for Earned Media Placements

I was talking the other day to a longtime journalist who, about a year ago, came over to the “dark side.” He took a position doing public relations for a nonprofit organization. His role as head of communications is not atypical – media relations, writing content, organizing webinars and a dash of community relations thrown in.  Like many journalists, he has made the transition seamlessly, and the skills that he had as a reporter have translated well to PR. He’s enjoyed not having daily tight…

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The Best Pitches of The Year and Media Relations Trends to Watch in 2023

I’ve talked before on our blog about how thankful I am to have ongoing professional development opportunities here at Hodges. Joining media relations and writing coach Michael Smart’s Inner Circle in 2021 has been incredibly valuable to me, particularly the monthly master classes and Inner Circle Facebook group where members can ask questions and share advice. One of my favorite sessions each year is the December session on lessons learned from the best pitches of the last year. Members submit their best pitches, and Michael reviews them, identifies…

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When to Hold an In-Person Press Conference

Let me start by saying that I’m not a big fan of news conferences. I can safely say that the greatest moments of anxiety in my 40-plus years in public relations have been those insufferably long minutes leading up to the beginning of press conference when, despite all the best preparations, there are no reporters around. No camera crews. No sound guys attaching microphones to the podium. No eager journalist wannabes working for the local shopping news. The good news is that today, there are…

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Media Relations: Working smarter for placements

The Pew Research Center, which regularly tracks the ups and downs of the nation’s newspapers, recently offered some encouraging data. Americans are rediscovering their newspapers…on digital platforms. While print edition readership continues to dip, the traffic to newspapers’ websites has been growing considerably. Digital circulation is up a whopping 30% from 2019 to 2020. Since 2014, when Pew first started tracking online circulations, the average number of unique monthly visitors to local news websites is up 44%. At the same time, many online-only publications are…

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Sean & Josh on Media Relations

Teaming Up, Episode 10: Josh & Sean on Media Relations Myths

Media relations is one of the most essential functions of public relations, but there are many misconceptions about how it all works and what strategies will be the most effective in getting media coverage for your client. In this episode, Josh, co-founder of The Hodges Partnership, and Sean, vice president of media relations, take a look into some of the most commonly believed myths about national media relations and teach us some best practices to start using in our own work. Here are the five…

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A stack of newspapers sit on a wooden table

Five questions to ask before you pitch to national media outlets

Early in our conversations with prospective clients, we come to the inevitable question about their expectations, particularly in the area of media relations. Just where would they like to see stories placed about their company or work? Their answers can be enough to take the air out of the room. When a company that specializes in inventory management software, for example, starts ticking off media relations targets like the TODAY Show or The Wall Street Journal or even daily newspapers where they have neither offices…

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Four simple tips to level-up your media relations game

Nearly 20 years ago, The Hodges Partnership was formed, and since our founding, we have always prided ourselves on our ability to foster media relations opportunities for clients. While the agency has evolved over the years to incorporate a full range of content marketing, social media and audit capabilities, media relations still is at the core of what we do and who we are. When we talk about media relations, a large part of what we mean is how we work to cultivate relationships with…

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On-camera interview fails and pitfalls

What is it about doing an on-camera interview that causes folks to have a kind of out-of-body experience? And not in a good way. Once the camera light goes on, suddenly interviewees become either void of personality or take on some other alternate persona that they think is a better version of themselves. I get it: you’re nervous, worried you’ll make a mistake, that embarrassing faux pas that winds up as a viral meme in your Nana’s inbox. I do a bunch of media training….

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