Legal blogs: How to get your name in the media

Michael Kanellos, an editor at large at CNET News.com, provides some rules and recommendations on how do you get the media to work for you. As Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion says the rules sound a lot like blogging.

• Every day is a new day. Reporters have about the same attention span as a house cat.
• Criticize your enemies. Sun established itself for years as the only force in the universe standing against Microsoft domination (and, at alternate times, Intel and IBM domination).
• Figure out who writes what.
• Use both your first and last name on the phone.
• Don’t take it personally.
• Rarely claim to be first. A lot of companies claim to be first in something, but most readers don’t believe it anyway.
• Let the execs speak. PR firms constantly fear that frank or outrageous comments from a CEO or other high-ranking exec will end up in print and hurt the company. It might, but there’s a long-term benefit. The reporter (and likely the whole publication) will think the interviewee considers them an equal. Everything they say after that will be taken as true.
• Don’t make up words.
• Leak like crazy.