Working with the media can feel intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. In the first of a two-part series, Amy answers the first five questions museum professionals most often ask about media relations. This episode is packed with real-world advice to help you feel more confident and prepared when it’s time to reach out to the media and share your museum’s story.

Links from the Episode:

• Episode 13: Media Relations at Your Museum

More Free Resources for Museums:

• Museum Planning Calendar
• Museum Metrics Template

About the host: 

Amy Kehs is a brand strategist and communications expert for museums. She has owned Kehs Communications since 2000 and has worked for the most renowned and well-loved museums in Washington, D.C. Her goal is to ensure that museums thrive into the next century, and she hopes people will come to love museums as much as she does. Her proven process sets up proactive communication habits for museums, cultivating relationships with visitors who will want to return and bring a friend. Want to talk more? Click this link to book a call.

Hey there.

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Today on the podcast, we're tackling

10 of the most common media relations

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questions that I hear from museums.

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Whether you're a one person shop, or

part of a bigger team, these are the

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things that come up all the time.

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Let's get started.

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Hello and welcome to the

Love My Museum podcast.

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I'm your host, Amy Kehs,

and I love museums.

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I'm also a brand strategist and

communications expert from museums, today

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we're talking about one of my favorite

topics, media relations, and specifically

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the 10 questions that I hear all the time

from museums, whether that is from a.

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director of a small museum who wears

all the hats, including the public

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relations hat, or if you're part of a

bigger team with more resources, these

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questions still come up again and again.

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We all want media coverage that helps

tell our museum stories, helps us reach

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new audiences, and shows the impact

of the work that the museum is doing.

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But the media relations side of

things, the media landscape can feel

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a little bit like a black box, like

there are rules that nobody told you.

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so today I'm going to walk you

through 10 of the most common.

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Media relations questions

that I get from museums,

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and because talking about these 10

questions, might run a little long,

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I've just decided that I'm going

to divide it up into two parts.

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So today in this episode, we will go

over questions one through five, and

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in the next episode we'll do a part two

and we'll do the last five questions.

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I do wanna say upfront that

media relations is a long game.

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It's about relationships.

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It's not just about getting coverage

today, but it's about being helpful

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and a trustworthy source over time.

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One of the reasons that I

decided to do this episode is

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because a lot of my clients and.

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Old coworkers and friends and family who

have been listening to the podcast over

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the last year have said to me, Amy, you

don't talk about media relations on your

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podcast, and that's what you're known for.

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And they're right.

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I did an episode, episode 13.

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But that was kind of an overview, a

summary of media relations, so I decided

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I'd sit down and think about the 10 things

that I hear questions around the most.

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And we'll go through those.

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I've kind of separated them into

almost in like a chronological

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order, so we'll see how this goes.

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So the first one that I have on my

list is how do you find journalists

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to even be on a media list?

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Now, this doesn't have to be

fancy or complicated and there

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really isn't a secret to it.

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Start looking at

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who is already covering culture,

community stories in your area.

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You can check local newspapers,

TV stations, radio, those tra more

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traditional news sources, but also

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look at non-traditional media

like blogs and podcasts.

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You can also look for bylines on

stories that are similar to yours.

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Maybe see if articles have been written or

things posted on blogs recently about a.

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Another museum or cultural

institution in your neighborhood.

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LinkedIn can also be a great resource

to track down journalists and their

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contact information, and there are

also tools and software out there

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to help you with the media list.

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So resources like MuckRack or Melt water.

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There also might be a more

regional tool that you can use.

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I am in the Washington DC area and

we have a directory called Hudson's.

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There's both an online version and

a paperback version of Hudson's.

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You should see some of my

old Hudson directories.

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They are filled with page flags and notes

and highlights, so investing in one of

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these tools can also be a great help.

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Okay.

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Question two.

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I get this one a lot and this is

actually some something that I get

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hired to put together or to work on.

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What do we need to have ready

before we pitch a story?

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This is a really great question.

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Thinking through everything that a

journalist might need, and having all of

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that prepped and ready to go can save you

a lot of panic in the middle of an exhibit

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opening or right before you have an event.

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So the first thing that you should.

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Really make sure you have.

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is some high resolution

images, and with those images.

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you should have a document that

includes the photo credits and

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the captions for all of the images

that you have pulled together.

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Another thing that's important

is to have a bio for.

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anyone that will be doing interviews.

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So if you're opening an exhibit and the

curator will be doing the interviews

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with the media, make sure you have

a bio of that curator ready to go,

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and you should also always have a

bio of your museum director ready.

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Those two people are the two

people that are most likely to be

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doing interviews with the media.

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I will put all of this into an electronic

press kit, usually in the tool Dropbox.

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This is something that journalists

tend to use a lot, and so it

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just makes it easier for them.

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Reporters are busy, so anything that

you can do to make their job easier

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is going to help you stand out.

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And of course, the really big thing that

you need for this electronic press kit.

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Is a press release about your event

or exhibit or program, and we'll talk

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about press releases more in a minute.

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The next question that I have received,

maybe only once, and I wanted to give

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this person a hug when they asked it.

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I wished that more museum staff,

more museum professionals, thought

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about this and talked to their

communications person about this

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at the beginning of their project.

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And that is, that question is how do

we know if something is newsworthy?

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Enough to pitch to the media, and this

is the question that is behind every

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other question you need to ask yourself.

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Is this timely?

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Is it unique or surprising?

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Does it connect to a larger

trend or community issue?

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The examples of what might be

newsworthy is the exhibit tied to

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a current event or an anniversary.

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Think about that ahead of time.

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Let's say just as an example that you

have an exhibit and it is highlighting

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a flag that's in your collection, an

American flag that's in your collection.

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June 14th, which is coming up is

flag day, and so planning to open

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that exhibit around flag day.

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Would be a really smart move.

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If your exhibit is highlighting famous

women in your town's history, and

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that exhibit comes out at the end of

April and you've just missed Women's

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history month, you've really missed

an amazing opportunity for coverage.

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This might sound really harsh,

but just because something is

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important to you or a coworker

doesn't always mean that it's news.

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And the earlier you can think about

the timeliness or the newsworthiness of

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your exhibit or your event, the earlier

you can think about that, the better.

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You need to tell people

why should they care?

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If you're highlighting from something

from your collection, why should

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people want to come and see it?

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And like I said, this is a really

important question to talk about

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at the beginning of the process.

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Question number four.

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Question number four is one that I just

got recently actually, and it is, what

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is the difference between a press release

and a media advisory, and do we need both?

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This is a really great question.

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So press release is the full story.

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It's all of the pertinent

information about the exhibit or

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the program or an acquisition.

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Whatever your announcement

is, it's an announcement.

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It should include the broad strokes

in that first paragraph, but then

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also give a few more details and.

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I always try to include a quote

either by the director of the museum

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or the curator of the exhibit.

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I teach a little mini course to museum

interns on how to write a press release,

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and I've done this a few times for

one of my favorite clients, and what I

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tell them is that the goal of the press

release is that if a journalist is handed

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the press release and some images, they

should be able to go and write a story

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without even having to come to the museum.

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or pick up the phone.

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That is the goal.

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And I've actually had this happen

several times where a newspaper or

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radio station just printed my press

release almost verbatim or read

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what exactly what I wrote on air.

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So that is a great way to

think about a press release.

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A media advisory is a short, timely

invite for the media to attend

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or cover something specific like

an event or a press conference

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or a program that you're having.

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So.

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You may have a press release on an

exhibit, but you may have a media advisory

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for a press preview or for a ribbon

cutting or for an opening ceremony.

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Think of a media advisory as an

invitation, and at the top of it,

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it'll have the who, what, where, when.

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But spelled out kind of more in

bullet points with then a short

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paragraph down at the bottom to

just give a little bit more details.

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A follow-up thing to that is, do you

need a press release for everything?

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No, you probably don't.

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You probably don't need

one for every single thing.

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Think about what's generally newsworthy,

what the museum's priorities are,

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and that should help you decide if

you need a press release or not.

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The last question for this episode

is how do we build relationships with

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local reporters before we need them?

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This is another great question

that I was really happy to hear.

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The reason I was excited to hear about

it is because a lot of times museum

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staff or any organization staff for

that matter, think of media relations

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as something that you need to do at

the end of a project, and that it

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only happens during this last phase.

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of a project.

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But that is not how we build

media relations at our museum.

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You need to stay top of mind for

these journalists, all the time, and

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this is where the long game comes in.

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This is something that should be

an ongoing practice at your museum.

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just, last month I received a call.

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a old client was getting ready to make

a big announcement, a big anniversary

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announcement, and it was two weeks away.

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They probably had not sent

out a press release in several

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years and they wanted my help.

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So they were bringing on media relations

support two weeks before they wanted

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to announce something and they hadn't

been in touch with journalists in years.

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No matter how hard I work, that is

going to be a tough sell, especially

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in today's climate where is hard to

get soft news stories anyway, way.

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Building relationships with reporters

before you need to ask them for something

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is really, really important, and there are

a lot of simple ways to build that trust.

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As I said in the beginning, media

relations, it's about these relationships

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and the stronger the relationships

are, the easier it's going to be

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to get coverage, and it needs to be

something that's ongoing, not just

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in the final phase of that project.

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And remember, it isn't a one way street.

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It is a symbiotic relationship.

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You want reporters to cover

your exhibit opening your event.

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But they also need content.

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So if you can be there as a resource

or an expert, if you can provide

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content for newsworthy things or timely

things, then that is going to be a

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really strong way to build that trust.

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There are a lot of simple ways to build

trust, and as I said at beginning, media

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relations is about these relationships.

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and the stronger the relationships

are, the easier it will be to get

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coverage, and it needs to be something

that's ongoing, not just in the final.

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Phase of a project.

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There are a couple of

things that you can do.

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You can follow them on social media

and you can engage with them there.

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You can send a quick introduction email

saying that you enjoy their work and

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that you are there, or your curators

or director are there as a resource

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Invite them to visit without an agenda.

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Using my planning calendar for

museums is a great resource to.

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Help with planning your museum's year

and reaching out to those reporters

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on a regular basis with those ideas.

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You'll be top of mind.

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Okay.

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Let's stop there.

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I hope you'll join me for the next

episode, and I hope this rundown of

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these first top five media relations

questions gave you something

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practical to think about and take

back to your museum and, and start.

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Planning and practicing for.

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Remember, it's media relations is

about building those relationships.

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It's about being helpful and sharing

stories that connect with people.

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If this episode was helpful,

I'd love to hear from you.

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Send me a message, share it with

a colleague, or let me know what

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other questions you might have.

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Thanks so much for listening,

and I'll talk to you next time.