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Article:
Media Relations: How We Landed the Wall Street Journal's Front Page by: Brad Phillips Media relations is a great profession. On good days, I earn my living speaking to and learning from knowledgeable experts who ask for help in raising the profile of their cause through the media. In the past few years, I've worked with billionaire philanthropists, a Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist and a world famous actor. Mostly, though, I work with unknown but equally impressive professionals regarded as experts in their fields. When I speak to them, I'm always listening for 'the story.'¯ Some of the time, the story is immediately apparent. But the most gratifying moments come when a story seemingly devoid of news value suddenly leaps out and surprises me. Two years ago, for example, I was doing media work for a Washington DC-based environmental organization. Scientists from the group would regularly contact me regarding their latest field work, hoping I could convince a reporter to shine a spotlight on their project. One day, I met with a charismatic field biologist to discuss his project while sipping coffee in a depressing restaurant. As he told me about his project, I quietly became more convinced that he didn't have much of a story. I felt bad, but suspected no reporter would bite. The West African forest elephant, he told me, was in trouble. The problem was largely one of capacity '“ no West Africans had been formally trained in protecting the '7
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