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Bob Wiltfong and Jason Mudd discuss PR tips from a former news anchor.

Guest:

Our episode guest is Bob Wiltfong, a retired TV News personality and now Axia’s Public Relations Account Director.

Five things you’ll learn from this episode:

1.  How to build media relationships
2.  Knowing when the pitch is right
3.  What is newsjacking
4.  The elements of news
5.  How to leverage local news on behalf of your brand

Quotables

• 4:10 “It's helpful to frame it as all you need is really one yes, that's all you're looking for is one yes. You're in a sea of no’s. So, you're just swimming through no's to get to that one yes, and you will find that one yes. You just got to keep swimming.” – @Bob Wiltfong 
• 4:30 “In PR, I tell people that the first 50 rejections are the hardest. So, once you get past having people say no 50 times, then it just kind of rolls off your back. The other cliche I like to say is a quick no is better than a forever maybe.” – @Jason Mudd
• 6:45 “Sometimes you just have to change things up if you're getting ghosted. Try to approach them from a different channel.” – @Jason Mudd
• 8:28 “One practice that's very helpful is the idea of read and react [by Michael Smart]. Instead of trying to please the journalists and consume everybody, all you're trying to do is consume your top-focused targets. Every day make a point of consuming maybe one or two of their content pieces and then contact them or reach out to them with no pitch, just compliments.” – @Bob Wiltfong
• 9:35 “PR people can't be PR people if they're not spending time consuming content. You can't pitch something that you've never seen. I don't know a single PR person who's really good at what they do, who does not consume news.” – @Jason Mudd
• 12:20 “Clients who I see aren't successful with media are those that can't spend time with a journalist unless they're going to cover them. That's just the wrong approach. You're not investing the relationship the right way.” – @Jason Mudd
• 19:30 “When you talk about real estate, you talk about location, location, location. With news, it's local, local, local.” – @Bob Wiltfong 
• 23:50 “The three elements I was taught in J School are very true. Is it timely? Is it local? Is it out of the ordinary?” – @Bob Wiltfong
• 28:37 “One of the things we have in our arsenal, as PR people, is that journalists and outlets are an open book for their staff.” – @Bob Wiltfong

Guest’s contact info and resources:

• Bob Wilfong on Facebook
• Bob Wilfong on LinkedIn
• Bob Wilfong website

Additional Resources:

•  Ten quick PR Tips
•  Why is the news media important?
•  The best media pitch is a story that's already done — and copy edited!

Support the show

• On Top of PR is produced by Axia Public Relations, named by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies. Axia is an expert PR firm for national brands.
• On Top of PR is sponsored by ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews.