In response to yesterday’s post about “meeting the press” in New York City, we received many questions from executives with biotech and medtech companies about what they should do to prepare for these meetings. 

At Russo Partners, all PR programs with media relations components involve story development and interview rehearsal sessions. Dubbed the Newsmakers Workshop, this client favorite consists of:

1. A review of the rights that you have as a newsmaker, or story teller, for your company

2. A discussion of the rights that journalists have in covering your company

3. The explanation of the news-reporting  and -writing process (from our former journalists, of course)

4. The diagramming of the typical media interview — and a demonstration of who is the leader vs. who is the follower

5. The development of a media interview checklist (with our own science and medicine experts) that contains three key messages you need to deliver — points that “must air” — in order for your story to be told and to lead your audiences to desired conclusions

6. A discussion of difficult questions that you anticipate and possible answers you can use

7. The introduction of tactics that will enable you to take and maintain control of all types of interviews

8. Practice, practice and more practice – on-camera and off-camera 

To reduce your story to three key messages, team members focus on whom you want to reach and what you want your audiences to think and do after reading the article or watching the segment that is the result of your interview.

We will provide more PR tips in future posts.  This one, as we stated up front, is the result of inquiries to us following yesterday’s post. We are happy to see that Rx for PR is gaining in popularity among the audiences for which the content is intended. We welcome your questions and comments.