Hey! This is MA Family and welcome to the second edition of Comms Rundown, our newsletter on PR and communications.

Just like any other month in the PR industry, this one was intense. So no time to waste!

In today’s rundown:

❌ As usual: ads, self-promotion, paid posts, and generic tips

✅ Industry news and reporters’ moves

📢 Glossary with crystal-clear definitions of key terms in PR and other resources

🫂 Learning from fails: practical tips proved with examples

Sit back, grab a cup of coffee (better 2, it's only Tuesday), and let’s go!

Blitz 🎯

1. The longest strike in digital media started by the Insider team is over. The 13-day labor struggle prompted managers to write their own stories and the editor-in-chief to tear down union fliers, but now the team has a tentative agreement on a contract, and reporters went back to work on June 15th.

2. Blockworks released its new podcast Lightspeed. It explores the world of crypto from a technologist's perspective, emphasizing experimentation, speed, and cutting-edge tech advancements.

PR Glossary

Confused about PR jargon? Don’t fret! We’ve put together a guide to give you insights into all those fancy PR definitions.

This comprehensive glossary provides clear definitions of key terms — from embargo and exclusives to op-eds, we’ve got you covered.

Check it out 🔍 🔽️️

And hey, we’re all ears! If you think we missed an important term or have any suggestions, please let us know, and we’ll update the glossary. Let’s keep the PR conversation going!

Who's where? 👀

1. Sam Blum joined Inc as a senior writer covering the world of entrepreneurs.

2. Danielle Chemtob joined Forbes to author the Forbes Daily, a morning newsletter that covers the news of the day and Forbes’ best stories on a range of topics.

3. Ana Teresa Solá is a new personal finance reporter at CNBC. She is super excited to take on this new beat — if you have any tips, reach out!

4. Natasha Mascarenhas, the ex-TechCrunch reporter, joined The Information to cover venture capital and startup. Send her tips and say hi!

5. Eli Tan became a summer intern on the Washington Post business deck. Send him scoops!

6. Joseph Gedeon started his job on the Politico cybersecurity team, and he’s on the lookout for tips and stories on any/everything in the cyber & nat sec world.

7. Irene Benedicto moved to NYC and joined Forbes — ping her all tech things, AI, and beyond.

Quote to think about 🗣️

Dave shared his tips for adding effective writing to your toolkit — check it out!

Tips and insights 📚

Workbook 📝

Lots of people in tech adore Paul Graham's essays and his style. He has also written on the process of writing itself — look through his articles!

Insights from reporters👂

Rafael de Sousa Vicente, our Senior PR Manager, joined the webinar “How to Navigate Press, PR, & Journalists for Founders” with Dominic-Madori Davis (TechCrunch), and Anita Ramaswamy (Reuters, ex-TechCrunch). The key points that might be helpful:

1. Reporters like to contextualize the startup in question. What’s the bigger picture? Why is this startup/founder relevant at the moment? Why should people care? Why right now? What’s the impact? Why does this product resonate? They like to put it in the context of the competitive landscape, and what’s on the news as well.

2. Sometimes reporters think of stories beyond their coverage/industry bubble. They look at it, and they wonder if it would be relevant to someone that’s actually outside of this particular industry. If this person came across the story, would they be able to read it, understand it, and its impact?

3. Reporters feel there’s a lot of noise. From news to pitches, it’s truly challenging to keep pace. Dom actually clarified she has over 50,000 unread emails (a moment of appreciation for both the replies we get and the ones we don’t).

4. Reporters don’t want to tell a corporate narrative; they want to uncover the truth. Get to the root of the story. Not what we’re showing them necessarily, but what’s beyond, what’s hidden, and that they can be the ones uncovering.

5. Reporters are open to speaking with founders on background or even off the record. And they like when founders approach them directly too.

6. Reporters like the human angle. Stories where founders explain why their background, and their uniqueness, and expertise justify they should be the ones responsible for the industry, and challenge they tackle, and the solutions they bring.

7. The hosts feel like founders might stress too much with PR goals, and wanting stories. And while they mentioned it’s ok to have a plan, it’s quite unrealistic to aim for specifics in most cases, as news doesn’t really work like that, and they can’t predict the news cycle. They proposed focusing on establishing a long-term presence, and relationships, even if that means working with smaller publications.

8. Reporters highlighted the value of introductions and comment availability. They like when people reach out on LinkedIn, or other channels with brief messages, and position themselves as experts ready to support them. They mentioned they might not reply and mostly don’t, but they always come back to older messages or emails to source for speakers who can comment on particular stories.

Learning from fails 🫂

1. Personalize your communication and think of the value you can bring to the reporter, not the other way around.

2. Pitch one reporter at each media at a time, and move to alternative targets only if the first ones pass. And spend time figuring out if they might be interested in it in the first place.

3. Do not lie to the reporter. Remember, a relationship is a two-way road. Try to abstract away from your personal advantage and consider the journalist as a friend.

4. Do not assume that all journalists initially agree to the embargo, so you have to ask. Pitch him/her a short summary, and say you’d be happy to share the details if the embargo is accepted.

5. Do your homework and always double-check. Relationships are fragile, and journalists are extremely touchy. If you make a silly mistake, at best, he/she will just remember you as someone you shouldn't communicate with. At worst — you’ll find a screenshot of your email on Twitter with lots of unpleasant comments.

6. Always, I mean always, prepare your speaker for the interview with the reporters. It’s better to spend some time working on his/her communications skills before the interview rather than leveraging PR to revive the reputation of your speaker after he had one.

Thank you for joining us for the second edition of our newsletter on communication and PR!

If you don't feel like this is something relevant for you, you can always unsubscribe below — otherwise, see you in July 🙌

Aleksandra from MA Family