As a modern aviation business, you know that you need to get your story out into the media. Making news is big business, after all. And while a growing number of specialised aviation public relations firms are making Yocova their home and can provide some great advice, here are some of the top tips your author — an award-winning independent aviation and travel journalist and regular Yocova contributor — suggests you think about in the modern media landscape… and how to work with it to get the best coverage of your news.
So, your company has a new product, service or partnership and wants to tell the world about it. Where to start?
The modern media landscape
As part of the world’s largest industry, travel and tourism, aviation news is picked up by a huge number of media, ranging from traditional print newspapers through to influencers and TikTokers.
Those media include:
- general media, like newspapers and TV channels
- technology and general interest digital media, like Mashable or Insider
- consumer and industry travel media, like guidebook sites and wider travel media brands
- industry global news media, covering aviation at its widest for an industry audience, like Aviation Week or FlightGlobal
- industry trade specialist media, focussing on one or more aviation segments, largely from a B2B perspective
- industry regional media, which have a geographical focus
- enthusiast, frequent flyer, or points-and-miles media, who may have their own particular angle
- influencers, bloggers, YouTubers, TikTokers and other high-profile individuals, who may or may not appear in other media as well
- hybrid media, which may blend two or more other kinds of media
Not every piece of news will be relevant to each one, and it’s important to consider carefully which media — and indeed which journalists — you approach with your news. A newspaper journalist on the aviation beat (who are now few and far between) is looking for very different things compared to a general interest site writer or YouTuber.
The much-maligned press release
Many press releases are scanned and then deleted, but a well-crafted one is a real gem for journalists. There’s a lot of advice out there on press releases — please let the Yocova team know if you’d like a followup modern media explainer with tips and tricks for writing a great one.
Overall, try to write your release from the perspective of the final audience, rather than from the company or companies concerned. That’s especially true when it comes to quotations: very few media are interested in your CxO saying how happy you are to work with a new partner. Much more useful is an explanation, in quote form, putting your case for what your news is, how it’s different, and what the unique selling point is compared with others in the industry.
Crucially: don’t just tell readers what it is, tell them why it matters.
If you’re expecting particular questions from media, clear the diaries of subject-matter experts who can provide interviews. You may well want to pre-prepare some lines, quotes and responses, either to send over email or for the experts to use in interviews.
Never expect media to show you their story in advance or ask for copy approval, even if you have provided quotes or interviews. (German-speaking media is an exception to this last rule, so companies in that region should be aware that this is not the case globally.)
Be careful about who sends the press release: a team mailbox that is checked many times a day, with an autoresponder confirming receipt of messages and how to follow up via phone or direct email for urgent requests, is ideal. One frustration that happens all too frequently is that a member of staff sends a press release out from their company email, and then goes on leave within the month, meaning multiple emails to chase up questions.
Within your segment of the industry, there will likely be 10-20 key journalists and media who specialise in what you do. They’ll be the most interested, and you may already have a professional relationship with them from air shows, trade expos and so on. You’ll want to consider writing personal emails covering your press release to those journalists — or, even better, to offer an embargo on your news.
The much-misunderstood embargo
One of the most frequent errors in media relations in recent years has been a fundamental misunderstanding — by companies, by PR agencies, and by some journalists — of what an embargo is.
An embargo is an agreement, in advance of sending any information, between a company and a journalist, where the company provides a press release, information and usually the opportunity for an interview or Q&A.
An embargo does not exist if a company simply sends out an email with “information embargoed until [date]” at the top. Journalists are entirely free to publish this information if they receive it if an embargo has not been agreed in advance.
After the embargo agreement, the journalist then reviews the material, researches the story, interviews the subject matter expert, and writes the article as normal. The only difference from a normal article is that they note to their editor the details of that embargo, including timezone. (That makes it really important to be very clear about what timezone the embargo is for. Avoid regional terms like “Eastern” or “EST” — “New York time” or “Paris time” are much clearer.)
Photos and videos
It’s 2023: many media will not cover your news without images, and video media may not cover your news without videos.
Multiple options of clear, compelling photographs or renderings have never been more important, both for articles themselves and when media link to those stories from visual-forward socials like Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn and so on. Try to provide at least half a dozen good images, in landscape and portrait orientations.
Attach one or two images of roughly 2000px on their longest sides to the press release email, and provide the rest in high-res via a single-click download link. Never require journalists to sign up or log in to an online press room — this adds friction. Modern options like Dropbox, WeTransfer or so on are usually superior to integrated software like SharePoint.
The last few years have seen a plague of semi-scam services that contact media demanding payment regarding images for which they are supposedly acting for the image’s rights holder. As a result, journalists may come back to you asking for an image release. This is usually low-key, in an email, where you confirm you own the image and grant them rights to use it.
For similar rights reasons, never send imagery from stock banks to media unless you have purchased the rights to distribute it. This could cause major and costly problems for them and for you.
It is very unhelpful to try to restrict the time period for which an image may be used: this is overreach and an unsustainable demand of smaller media in particular, who may decide simply not to run your imagery rather than have to create a system to go take it down in a year or two’s time.
If you’re distributing video, you’re probably a large enough organisation to know how to do it, but similar recommendations apply.
Questions? Please feel free to ask away, or get in touch with the Yocova team if you’d like us to dive deeper in follow-up guides!
Author: John Walton
Published: 12 October 2023
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