A reader inquires, “What is a pre-briefing?” A pre-briefing is a public relations tactic where you talk to a reporter about your news before making an official announcement. It’s also known as a “pre-announcement briefing.” To grasp its significance, you need to understand the sequence of events that takes place from the moment a company decides to announce something to when it receives media coverage for that announcement.
Writing a press release (also known as an “announcement”) and sending it out through a wire service like BusinessWire usually isn’t an effective way to get reporters to cover your news. If you’re already famous and have really interesting news, then just sending out a press release might grab the media’s attention. But that’s not the case for most people. For instance, if you sent out a press release saying, “Sarah Palin Acquires Hydrogen Bomb,” reporters would take notice even without a direct approach. I hope that’s not you.
Most of us need to work pretty hard at getting reporters to pay attention to our news. We need to brief reporters on our announcement to get them interested in covering it. We need to be able to answer their questions, either in person or on the phone. For major news, you might hold a press conference. However, as most of us understand, reporters are busy, so unless you’re the Rolling Stones announcing a new album, you won’t get reporters to come to you in person. You need to reach out to them personally, which is typically done today through email.
Then, we need to respect the fact that reporters generally need some time to write an article about your news. It’s helpful to tell them what you are going to announce a couple of days in advance of your news actually going out. The pre-briefing request is an email or phone call that asks if the reporter wants to hear about your news in advance of it being distributed on a wire service. This gives the reporter some time to write the story before you make your announcement. Reporters usually don’t like to write about news after the announcement. Soon, it’s old news and not relevant. But, most reporters are busy enough that they can’t write a story about you the same day you make your news.
When you show a reporter a press release in advance, it is known as giving it to them “under embargo” – with an understanding that they will not write about your story until the press release goes out on the wire service. Pre-briefing is common in corporate PR. In politics and more regular news, it’s pretty rare. There is always a risk that the reporter will leak your news but usually that’s not a big issue.