Coverage Report

News and analysis on health media and PR.

February 2020 edition

Go “Inside Media Minds” with the first blog post in a series about working with reporters and editors (see Deep Dive below).

First Pitch

Welcome to Coverage Report

Dear Reader,

Note: I am re-sending this to correct the link in the first story under Clip Show.

I am excited to unveil the first edition of Coverage Report. My goal is to deliver compelling news and analysis on health-related external communication issues in a succinct package. The sections will include:

  • First Pitch: A brief overview and initial thoughts

  • Clip Show: My quick takes on interesting headlines about issues and trends in health media and PR.

  • Deep Dive: An overview of one of my in-depth blog posts on media relations and other PR matters.

  • Placements: Job moves in health media and PR.

  • The -30-: A closing thought.

I hope you’ll find Coverage Report insightful, useful to your work, respectful of your time and fun to read. If you like it, please forward it to colleagues who work in health media relations or PR.

Vince

Clip Show

‘Dead doctors don’t lie’ — Pediatrician threatened over vaccine TikTok in ‘global, coordinated attack’

MedPage Today, 3 min read time

[Link corrected]

A Cincinnati-area pediatrician used TikTok to promote the benefits of vaccines. Then, she shared it on Twitter — and anti-vaccine forces turned their ire on her. This article shows that it takes being part of an online community to fend off the attacks of an opposing online community: Few can handle it alone.

Vulnerability tops PR cybersecurity trends to watch in 2020

PR Daily, 5 min read time

This piece offering advice to PR professionals dealing with cybersecurity issues points out the heightened vulnerability of health-related companies. Any company that handles patient data needs an up-to-date crisis communication plan for data breaches.

The 2019 News Release Benchmark Report [white paper]

Onclusive and Business Wire

This analysis of 17,000 press releases was first discussed at PRSA ICON in October and provides benchmarks and best practices for news release distribution. Most of the metrics show spikes around 7-8 a.m. and 3-4 p.m. What would the numbers look like if you pull out releases from all publicly traded companies? Releases right before or after the markets close may be skewing results. (H/t Frank Strong of Sword and the Script)

Deep Dive

5 steps for getting to know a reporter

The news media world changes constantly. To keep up, media relations professionals must excel at starting new relationships with reporters and editors. This is the first post in a series, Inside Media Minds, on interacting with reporters. (3 minute read)

See also: The story of how a reporter got the story matters in media relations

Placements

Notable moves in health media and PR

Matt Burns has left his role as VP and chief communications officer of Health Care Service Corp., which is undergoing a leadership transition (PR Week)

POLITICO adds to health team: Rachel Roubein to cover Medicaid/state policy and Lauren Morello and David Lim for the outlet’s expanded FDA coverage (Twitter, Twitter, TalkingBizNews)

Noah Weiland has been promoted to health policy reporter at the New York Times (TalkingBizNews)

Andrew Dunn leaves BioPharma Drive to join Business Insider to cover pharma and biotech (Twitter)

Marisa Taylor moves from Kaiser Health News to Reuters (TalkingBizNews)

The -30-

A central tenet of the recent, excellent book “The Apology Impulse” is that brands should apologize only when they are truly sorry for their conduct. The Houston Astros have been illustrating this idea right before our eyes. The Astros should be sorry — very sorry — for their sign stealing (and other things) but their insincere apology attempts are predictably making the situation worse.