Of course, timing will often be out of your control in cases where events are unfolding and you must respond quickly. To a large extent, knowing how to time your message can make a difference. And not just in terms of the hour of the day. When a reporter calls inquiring about your company, take a few minutes to ask a few questions yourself. The impact of the World Wide Web has revolutionized the way news is gathered.
Time is no longer a luxury.
The sooner you understand this, the more adept you'll become at handling media inquiries. In the years before the Internet, whether you were a reporter for a trade publication covering the computer industry, or a business reporter for a large daily, the amount of relevant research material available at any time was limited. In the pre-Internet age, reporters relied on a notepad, the telephone, sources, and back issues of newspapers and magazines. That all changed as computers became more pervasive. In their book The Canadian Reporter, authors Carman Cumming and Catherine McKercher discuss the merits of developing superior research skills and the impact computing has had on the journalism profession.