Beyond flacks — top reporters tell how to develop sources inside companies

Two veteran journalists and a seasoned public relations professional offered these tips on how to cultivate sources beyond company flacks in a SABEW session today.

Here are the insights of Diana Henriques, a New York Times reporter and Pulitzer finalist, who notes that “source development and source management is really job 1 for journalists”:

• Because you’re trying to develop sources in a different culture –  a corporate one — “try to identify people in that culture whose primary responsibility is also to a craft or profession,” like journalists. She suggested starting with cultivating in-house counsels or accountants.
• “You’ve got to speak the language.” She noted, for example, the stylistic differences in e-mails from academics, with lax capitalization and punctuation, and those from military personnel, which are very courtly and correct. ”My e-mails are marvels of literary style” when dealing with the military.
• Get out of the office. ”We spend way too much time at our desks, way too much time on our computers and way too much time on e-mail. It’s a wonderful tool, but do not confuse it with source development.” When you go to conventions of the businesses you cover and collect business cards, ”your first chore you do when get home is to phone or e-mail every person’s card you collected. Start building a long-distance relationship with them.”
• Do your homework. ‘If you come into interview well-informed about that company, it will reassure them that you know other sources of information about that company, and they will be more forthcoming.”
• When dealing with a flack on a difficult story, you might conclude the interview with “I really appreciate your being so professional about this. I understand this is tough for you, too.”

Jon Hilsenrath, who started covering the Federal Reserve System for The Wall Street Journal the week of the Lehman Bros. collapse, said he started from close to ground zero from a sourcing standpoint. Here are his tips:

• Tap into the intelligence and information among the journalists in your newsroom. “Information is a lever.” Sometimes a bit of info from another reporter can pry more information out of a source.
• Understand the power structure of the organization you’re covering, including who’s in the room when decisions are made. “You’ve got to find different entry points. Literally, I’ve gone through published minutes of Fed meetings looking at who was there and how I can get to know those people.”
• Do a story that makes a source uncomfortable, and “you’ll be amazed at how quickly people will start giving you their version of events.”

Peter Hillan, senior vice president for public relations giant Fleishman Hillard, offered tips from the other side of the fence. When helping to manage a corporate crisis as a public relations professional, he asks these questions:

• What is your goal?
• What is your story? What do you have to talk about — pro and con?
• How are we going to tell it? “I love using third-party advocates,” who are going to be more credible, such as suppliers, vendors, competitors, industry organizations and politicians.

Then, he puts together a plan of who’s going to talk for the company and what their message is going to be. “You’re never going to win if you shut down [and say no comment]. You should hold the flacks accountable,” said Hillan, who is also a former business editor of the San Jose Mercury News.

Hilsenrath added that if company officials won’t talk,  other sources will often comment, including stockholders, directors and suppliers, especially small businesspeople. And Henriques recommended looking for court records, speeches or other documentary sources to offer the company’s point of view, if its officials won’t talk. “Sometimes that can be your lever” to get the company to talk, she said.