Five Things You Should Never Say to a Reporter

By now, we all know that pitching to a reporter can be something of an art. You have to strike the right tone with the right information to pique the interest.

But there are also some thing you can say to strike exactly the wrong tone. I huddled with a few reporter friends of mine to determine what they have heard over the years that was a total turn-off when it came to covering a story.

Here's what we came up with:

• "You guys NEVER cover good news, so...you should do a story on this." - Asking for something on the tail end of an insult is probably not a good strategy, especially when it's most likely not true. The sad fact of it is, though most outlets do have some feel-good stories, people don't remember them. They remember the murders, the shootings, the scandals. This is something I hear constantly and as a media person, it is really frustrating to know that yes, I wrote about the scandal but I also wrote the story about the cancer patients in remission -- but you didn't read that one.
• "The last story written about me was wrong, so you can make up for it by doing this one." - There's a protocol to follow when reporters make mistakes, which may happen. That doesn't mean they owe you a completely different story. You can get a correction and an apology, but don't demand another story.
• "I want to sell XYZ, so this will be great advertising for me." - We've talked about this several times before. Typically, the media won't cover your business to give you free publicity unless you're Apple status, of course. A reporter's stance on this is that if you want publicity, you should purchase an ad so don't try to sell them a commercial as a story.
• Presenting anything to a reporter without proof, i.e. "So-and-so has been stealing money for years..." - We can not report on a story without some semblance of fact to back it up. Media outlets are not in the business of getting sued for libel or slander based on a hunch.
• "But you did on a story on them..." - We may have done a story on your competition or someone with a similar story because it was news at the time. That doesn't mean we will cover every similar business or initiative. Remember, a story should be unique and we're sorry that the other group got to us before you did. Covering your group after we already did a story on the similar one cancels out the uniqueness factor, doesn't it?

If you're guilty of saying any of these statements to a reporter, all is not lost. There's always another day -- and another reporter -- to present your story in the best way possible. Special thanks to my good buddy and fellow reporter Natalie Driscoll, who helped me out with this list.

Bridgette Outten is a journalist and media consultant with The Write Vision Group, Inc.  Her background is in print journalism and she has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and online publications. At The Write Vision Group, Bridgette consults with nonprofits and small businesses about how they can get media attention for their programs and efforts. Meanwhile, she blogs on all things journalism.