The News Never Sleeps Particularly When its a Holiday

As many Houstonians relaxed this weekend and celebrated the fact that their law firms were closed, a few Media Masters clients awoke to cell phone calls from us every day. We spent the weekend on the phone, arranging interviews with journalists looking for legal sources on a long weekend. Brutal does not even describe it- brutal for us calling clients away from their families, brutal for the interview subjects who had to work on a holiday and brutal for journalists desperate for legal sources that were out of town.

The experience taught us a few things we thought were worth sharing at the cusp of a long, hot, holiday-filled summer. First, although work may be slowing down in the firm, it never slows down for journalists who need legal sources for breaking news, story ideas for slow news days and perspective on complicated legal issues. Informational marketing means sharing one's expertise via media outlets and in almost all cases it is very successful. It is also fickle, last-minute and affords an attorney no control over the product that eventually makes it on-air or in the paper. Asking a reporter to "hold an interview" or ensure a story is going to be told a certain way in an attempt to exert editorial control is presumptuous and ineffective. It also almost guarantees a reporter will never ask for an interview from that attorney again.

The best bet for staying in the media's eye during the summer- stay flexible, accessible and understandable in the interview so reporters share the angle you want out there- even if it isn't told exactly the way an attorney would like.