Pitching A Story That Doesn't Exist
We complain amongst ourselves about PR professionals who pitch stories and then pull a switch-a-roo at the last minute. It's quite frustrating to suddenly be diverted from a story we had in mind to something we couldn't care less about.
But it's even worse being lied to.
A report came out yesterday, with one of those "top" lists. It's an interesting list, and one with a lot of nuggets that can be mined for potential stories.
Then I got the following query:
Would you be interested in hearing from XXX about what is surprising in this list and what this means for larger cyber-security issues?"
I perked up, since hey, surprises are always good. Was something missing? Should something not have been included? Was the ranking incorrect?
I wrote back to make my intentions clear:
I would like to center it around talking about the actual list. I assume, because you pitched it, that there were surprises on what showed up (or didn’t) on the list? If there weren’t any surprises, there’s no story…
And got the following reply:
Yes, we can set up a call for tomorrow to talk about what stands out in this report
I've laid the ground rules, and clearly specified what story I was after. Imagine my shock when the person I have the briefing with this morning tells me there were no surprises, and that everything on the list was consistent with everything he had been seeing. "No changes," was the exact quote.
I ended the interview immediately. The PR person tried to salvage the situation, but what was there to talk about?
I was annoyed enough to mentally compose the little note, below. Too bad I am not ever going to send it.
I am a little perplexed that you confirmed there was a story about there being surprises in the released list when there apparently wasn’t. Please don’t pitch non-existent stories just to get me on the phone.
It's a good thing I hadn't pitched the idea at the editorial meeting this morning.