It's ironic that the more high tech it all gets, the more the old-school rules matter.
We've jotted down a few in case you're in need of a quick refresher:
Remember, reporters are people too - the less you see 'the media' as an amorphous blob and the more you start to connect with them as individual human beings, the greater the chance you'll not just connect, but find some common ground.
Be relationship, rather than interaction focused - the more you and your newfound media friends understand one another, the more receptive they will be to your (tailored) good-news messages, and the easier time you will have when things hit the fan. At the very least, be on a friendly speaking basis before a crisis darkens your door. Get some media training if you haven't already - you only get one crack at getting it right, and you need to be sure you're fully prepared. Media training nowadays should give you a much wider depth of understanding than potted key messages: to be truly prepared you need a good understanding of your industry and its issues, and how your situation is likely to play out in context. The more high tech it is, the easier you'll get lost - so keep it low tech as often as you can.
Don't hide behind emails if you can possibly pick up a phone: important relationship builders like trust, familiarity and ease of interaction are built one tiny interaction at a time. The easier it is for the rest of the world to connect by mass email and floods of attachments, the more you'll stand out with a personal touch. Know the rules of the game - if you are going to engage, you will, at some point, emerge from the battle bloodied and bruised and knocked about a bit. Understand the potential for this early on and get over it. If you don't know where you or your issue have the potential to go, talk to somebody who might have a clue (a PR bod would be an excellent start, whether it's in-house or out in the world). Pick your battles - letters to the editor can fast dissolve into games of linguistic ping-pong (and seriously, when was the last time you could truly address a contentious issue in 150 words? Just the once?).
Pick your battles. Do you really need to call that chief reporter to have her on about that headline (she doesn't even write them) - or is it one you can live with? Save it for the stuff that really matters. Understand the new news cycle - actually, it's not so much a cycle these days as something resembling an infinity symbol. Thanks to even the stuffiest of mainstream media pitching their tents online, we've now entered an intensely competitive world-clock 24 hour news society that is starving for more, faster, quicker - now. Use it to your advantage for the good news stuff. Ignore it at your peril in a crisis. News abhors a vacuum.
Know that crisis control is so yesterday - check out some of the attributes of the new C generation and you'll start to get a feel for why and how the rules are changing. The other 'c' words are where the world is at. You need to be there too. Be able to tell your story as elegantly as possible - more than ever, today, great stories win - real people's real stories told in bite-sized, manageable chunks.
Understand the law of parsimony, know that less-is-more, and feel the media (and your ultimate audience) swoon with relief. Keep it real - spin is dead, as are contrived '90s 'human interest stories' (so, for that matter, is celeb endorsement. But that's another story).
Make sure your 'real people' are real. Be prepared to sacrifice some shiny, happy '90s/early distancing 2000s gloss for some heart felt connection and real world grit.
Look outward - news never happens in a vacuum. Whether you're looking to get column centimetres for good news or avoid them for bad, there's a big wide world outside of your organisation that will heavily influence how your message is received - if it is received at all - and it is changing all the time.
Look inward - make sure all your ducks are in a row and do a risk assessment before you go public, even with that seemingly benign piece of fluffy, spinny candyfloss. If there's something in your closet, fess up to your media advisor. At the very least, Google yourself.
So what's the story with the Easter Rabbit and all those other animal icons? There's a long tradition of using symbols we know in branding... 
Tactile media rules! So come to your senses. All of them. Touch, smell, feel - it's not just what you see and hear any more. 
Intellectual property can be a tricky legal area. And these days the term 'property' more than applies... 
So what are the trends that are speeding towards us from the horizon? Some have already reached us while others are looming... here's our pick. 
