If it bleeds, it leads. The news follows the path of maximum controversy. Mistakes, attacks, and scandals will always attract coverage and spread quickly online. You don’t have to do something wrong for everything to go wrong. These truths can be hard to accept, but the sooner you do, the sooner we can get to work and fight back to improve your situation.

Maintain, but don’t bet on, relationships. Before trouble comes, build relationships, supply reliable information, and respond promptly. Journalists and editors can influence coverage, but their interest guarantees neither publication nor favorable treatment. A friendly lunch is not an editorial policy.

Make their job easier. Give journalists clear timelines, original documents, named experts, and accurately labeled images. Help them verify their stories under deadline. Keep working with them when tempers rise. A tight deadline is not evidence of bad faith.

Annoying questions. Repeated questions may annoy, but they may also signal an unanswered concern shared by more people than the journalist. Take them seriously. A persistent journalist may simply be doing the job well. Objecting to a negative angle does nothing to answer the underlying concern.

Grab the right tool. Not every development requires a press release. Use a short statement for confirmed essentials, a briefing for complex questions, and direct contact for urgent clarification. Often a call or text suffices.