Whitespace in Media Relationships: Fostering Genuine and Fruitful Reporter Connections

By: Doug Cipriani

Media relations is a dynamic skill with variables galore, making it easy to fall into the transactional rhythm of sending a pitch, securing a desired piece of coverage and moving onto the next. However, the strongest relationships with reporters aren’t built in the transactional moments – they’re built in the space in between those moments. That’s where the “friendly check in” comes into play.

Relationships Over Pitches

How you show up when you don’t need something from someone often matters more than how you show up when you do need something. This is true in personal relationships, and the same principle applies to media relations. Too often, media outreach is tied directly to an ask, whether it be a pitch, follow up or product sample offer. Once coverage lands, the conversation stops and the silence resets the relationship to start from scratch next time you reach out.

The friendly check in changes this ineffective cycle. It’s about expanding your outreach to go beyond pitching a specific angle or story to a reporter and instead reaching out without an underlying agenda. You don’t try to disguise your outreach as a non-pitch, it’s not “circling back” without any substance or sending frequent follow ups. Instead, you’re:

• Keeping it authentic to build relationships that are larger than landing a story for your client.
• Checking in to see how they’re doing, staying in touch on their life updates and working to build an authentic personal relationship.
• Mitigating silence once coverage runs to not let space grow for the relationship to reset.
• Filling the whitespace between story opportunities with intentional dialogue.
• Avoiding the transactional nature by not contacting each other only when you want something.
• Taking the time to build mutually beneficial relationships.

The Value Proposition

Focusing on building valuable relationships doesn’t just make interactions less transactional – it makes them mutual. Your outreach and conversations with media move from self-serving with the intention of landing coverage, to two-sided as you work to build a personal relationship. When you’re communicating with and without asks, the value then flows both ways. You’ll go to reporters with story ideas and they’ll come to you with source or product requests because you understand each other’s constraints and goals beyond a singular pitch.

When you consistently show up without an undercover agenda, you’re showing reporters that you see them as a person outside of the publication they write for. In their eyes, you become someone who understands their work, respects their time and values the relationship itself, not just the outcome.

Over time, this will lead to your email breaking through the noise of a reporter’s busy inbox. Your message will be one they actually open when they see the familiar name. The relationship you’ve built will create more responsive communication and will garner honest feedback on your ideas because you put in the work to bring it to that point.

Doing It the Right Way

Authentic relationship building doesn’t have to be complicated, but we suggest a few techniques to make it successful. The overarching key is identifying relevant yet natural moments to reach out. These touchpoints can be things like congratulating them on a new role or topic they’re covering, acknowledging a personal milestone, like moving or getting a new pet, or sharing your thoughts on one of their recent stories. Across all these moments, you’re including elements of timeliness, thoughtfulness and intention. The outreach isn’t disguised as a pitch, it’s a true touchpoint for connection.

To identify these moments, it takes a bit of proactive effort. Keep a pulse on target reporters’ social media channels and recent coverage feeds, looking for topics that make sense to connect on. Maybe you had a similar experience or advice to share for something they posted about on Instagram, or you particularly relate to one of their recent articles – reach out. To make this process more manageable, a personal tracker is key. Develop a master document for yourself that includes things like their contact information, notes from recent conversations and their personal interest or milestones you identify. Taking a few minutes each week to update this will make it easier to personalize your outreach and pick up conversations naturally over time.

When you’re having conversations with media, avoid coming across as scripted or overly formal. Your writing should take a conversational tone – you should ask questions and let your personality shine through. This will make you memorable and help the reporter feel that they’re talking to a real person behind the message, not just another PR contact they’re getting a mass blast from.

One of the most essential, and most difficult, parts of this approach is consistency. These relationships aren’t built with one email or one conversation – they take time, so carving out space in the week to do this is crucial. This can be as simple as taking 30 minutes on a Friday to review your key contacts social media profiles and recent coverage, responding to open conversations and updating your tracker with context for future reference. It’s easy to push this to the bottom of a busy to-do list, but investing the time here pays off in the long run.

This is a simple concept but extremely powerful in impact. Relationships go far, especially when properly nurtured. Taking the time to move from chasing coverage to building coverage makes all the difference. Interested in how strategic media relations can support your business? Reach out to the Double Forte team for more information.