Media relations 2020

Choose your Own Adventure—Breaking into Top Tier Business Media

By Tony Welz /

We get the question all the time – what can we do to get [name reporter]’s attention? And the answer is never an easy one, especially in cybersecurity, where most reporters are tasked with following the day’s news, which often centers around breaches, government actions and other sensitive topics.

I’ve also heard from friends in cyber that they are often told: “Without research, breach insights or a willingness to talk about certain nation-state attacks, you’ll never get the press’s attention.”

Let me say this as clearly as possible: That’s a myth.

Our PR team is talking to reporters everyday. They trust us, because we’ve spent the time to earn their trust. We know what they want and work to bring them stories (or sometimes just spokespeople or ideas) that we think they will find interesting. 

The reality is that there are five distinct avenues into business press and broadcast, depending on the reporter and their outlet.

  1. Rapid Response: Responding intelligently to today’s breaking news with distinct insights. We don’t chase ambulances; we counsel our clients to assess the areas where they can add value and we create playbooks that lean into these insights and the spokespeople who can actually help reporters tell a more complete story.
  2. Financial-related News: Business press is just that, reporting geared toward the business community. They want to hear interesting business stories. This may not be every organization’s cup of tea, but if you do have something to share, there’s an audience.
  3. Thought Leadership: This one is probably the hardest. Building the credibility for a reporter to determine that your insights warrant a story (or inclusion in a bigger story) can take time. But, the payoff is worth it. However, as my business partner likes to say: thought leaders need to have thoughts. And these thoughts need to be unique, insightful and useful to a broad audience.
  4. Customer Insights: Depending on your market, this could mean CISOs or it could mean consumers. Insights into the actions, plans or concerns of enterprise buyers is always interesting, especially if you can bring them into the room. Even more powerful is the consumer – not everyone is an enterprise defender, but everyone _is_ a consumer.
  5. Threat Research/Intelligence: Many consider this low hanging fruit, but it’s only low hanging if you have the ability to deliver interesting, insightful and unique research. And then, you need to consider the audience for this research – if your research is geared toward defenders, you may need to evaluate how to tailor it to a broader, less technical audience. All of this is to say that research and intelligence is hard and while it may be an ‘easier’ path for media engagement, it’s not always the easiest, best path—or for many organizations – a realistic path.

As I said, we work with reporters every day, and we bring these insights back to our clients. This approach is definitely easier said than done. It starts with hard earned relationships and trust and it ends with flexibility and collaboration to build programs and story packages that offer something unique that the reporter is interested in. Most of our clients are able to prioritize the 2-3 pathways that align best with their business, and we take the time to create something special. From there the results speak for themselves. Check out the examples below to see for yourself:

Meet the W2 Communications team at RSAC!

Schedule a time to discuss how our proven marketing and strategic communications strategies can strengthen your brand’s reputation, drive industry recognition, and connect you with the right cybersecurity buyers in both the private and public sector. Book your meeting today!