7 media relations rules you might want to break

Most disciplines have unwritten rules or principles that professionals live by, and the practice of public relations is no exception, but no PR or media relations “law” is ironclad.

There are times when you might need to break the rules, or at least shake up PR industry convention when it comes to dealing with the press. Here’s my list.

Rule 1: Never say, “No comment.” Of course, we tell clients this, and the words have become such a cliché that any PR person would cringe to see them in print, but most know that there are times when the only response to a media inquiry is none at all.

For example, pundits advise “getting out in front of the story” in a crisis, but we don’t always have all the facts during the roughly four-hour window available for responding. If you don’t have the facts, you probably shouldn’t be speaking to the press.