The Opera House Hotel Says “No” to New York Times | Media Training

The Opera House Hotel Says “No” to New York Times | Media Training

What is your default position when a reporter alls?

The New York Times did a positive, glowing profile of, the Opera House Hotel, a boutique hotel in Bronx, New York today. Here is the sentence that jumped out at me.

“Workers there on Sunday said they could not let a reporter see one, but the rooms look nice in photos, and the common spaces are sleek.”

Disaster! Somewhere, a pr executive or general manager for this hotel must be thinking “I just cost my hotel $5 million in free publicity!”

The New York Times had a link to a generic photo from one room, but wasn’t allowed to take any new photos. Imagine what a fancy spread of high quality photos in the New York Times could do for a boutique hotel in an out-of-the-way location.

By saying “no” to a reporter’s request, the Opera House Hotel apparently thought it was taking a safe, cautious approach to dealing with the media. Instead, it turned what could have been there greatest story ever into merely a good story, and lost out on millions of dollars worth of publicity.

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What is the media policy of your organization? Is the default response “no?” Or is it “yes?”

Neither response is perfect, but the notion that “no” is safer and less risky is not necessarily true. Sometimes “no” creates the greatest losses of all.

TJ Walker is founder of Media Training Worldwide. You can find his online training courses here. https://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com/online-training.html

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