Building and maintaining long-term trust relationships with journalists is key in the Press Relations sector. To succeed in doing so, IT and B2B businesses operating in France have an ace in their sleeve: the Club de la Presse Informatique B2B. 

Let me give you some context: as an IT company, you need to gain visibility in specialized segments of the French media to win market shares, showcase your expertise, and recruit new talents. To do so, you may decide to call on the services of a seasoned PR agency (OneChocolate, for instance 😉). Through publishing press releases, opinion papers, and interviews, you have learned the ropes of our trade, and your PR strategy is up and running. But have you ever considered becoming a member of the Club de la Presse Informatique B2B?

At OneChocolate, we truly believe in the added value of this membership. Founded and managed by journalist José Diz, it is a perfect complement to any press relations campaign, and we usually recommend it to those who specialise in new technologies and B2B.

Let us find out why!

The Club de la Presse Informatique B2B… in a nutshell

In case you missed our interview with José Diz – in which he explained how the club contributes to nurture good relations between journalists and businesses -, let us go over it briefly:

Founded in 2012, the Club de la Presse Informatique B2B includes IT and B2B journalists, PR agencies and member companies. All these stakeholders attend various events held throughout the year, such as:

  • Networking evenings: taking place in September, January and June, these evenings allow for casual meetings over a drink and a canapé, thus creating and/or maintaining good relationships between members. June’s event, entitled “The Great Casino”, is a favourite of OneChocolate: between the Blackjack and roulette tables, and the closing auction sale, this event is always as entertaining as it is useful! Press officers are mostly there to facilitate introductions between clients and journalists.
  • Debates: from September to May, those monthly events can be hosted in the form of a breakfast or dinner and cover many hot topics selected by the member companies via a mid-year vote. To cover all IT domains, many subjects can be tackled, be it cybersecurity, cloud, AI, and data. For an hour and a half, six to seven speakers debate the issue of the day in front of 10 to 20 journalists in a friendly atmosphere. However, the journalists’ main interest lies in listening to a representative of a member company talk about their personal views.

A challenging media context

In recent years, the IT press has evolved in a way that has had a major impact on the relationships between journalists and businesses.

Web versus print

On the one hand, web versions of publications represent a greater burden on editorial departments than printed versions – most of which are now extinct. The frequency of daily publication requires journalists to write a couple of pieces a day to feed their editorial websites, even though those are hardly ever feature articles. As a result, journalists have to cut down on travelling. Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly incited journalists to make use of videoconferencing tools, thus resulting in fewer opportunities for face-to-face meetings.

Multidisciplinary journalists

On the other hand, the workforce in editorial departments has begun to decline. Journalists therefore have no choice but to become multidisciplinary and cover several sectors, each involving many stakeholders. This is where their lack of availability becomes a real problem, since they are not ubiquitous and cannot accept every invitation to a press event.

Expertise and relationships: the winning combo

With these two facts in mind, it is becoming increasingly difficult to build lasting relationships with specialised journalists and showcase one’s expertise and relevance to the market. No PR agency would deny it: we are all in the same boat!

That is why being a member of the Club de la Presse Informatique B2B is a great opportunity; we genuinely believe that this membership provides an additional asset in implementing our clients’ strategies and campaigns.

Moreover, as José Diz told us during his interview for our 2019 series of articles “La Parole aux Journalistes”:

“The club model is a win-win for all stakeholders as it enables agencies to improve communication with journalists, which is the very essence of their work; it is also a means for businesses to meet more journalists, even those who do not necessarily cover their industry. Whether during evening events or the monthly debates held by the club, networking is a top priority. Beyond relationships between agencies, journalists and businesses, the club is also an opportunity for journalists, member companies and former colleagues from the same communication agency to get together.”

Proof by example

At OneChocolate, we have won a great number of opportunities thanks to our clients’ participation in these events and debates. Below is a selection:

Client Testimonial

During a networking event, a journalist got in touch with a major player in the analytics sphere and told him he was looking for client testimonials in the field of data and sustainable development. After several months of collective research, we found a client who agreed to give an interview, which resulted in a handsome feature in the journalist’s media.

Moreover, a client from the same analytics company took part in a debate on data-driven management and many journalists were interested to hear about his experience. Some of them decided to write a dedicated article, followed by a journalist from the Business press who managed to insert a quote in an article he wrote a few weeks later. Thus, both the client and publisher benefited from a significant increase in visibility.

Business Press

A meeting between a journalist from the Business Press and a managing director during a networking evening enabled the agency to secure the publishing of a portrait of the latter in a major business media.

Expanding your contact list

Another networking event brought a spokesperson together with a journalist from the Tech press, who had never responded positively to any of our propositions before. The conversation paid off this time, as it enabled our press officers to secure an interview with the journalist, which resulted in the publication of an article.

Finding an expert

Debates on chosen themes are another key moment at the club, and some senior editors sometimes program their editorial lines accordingly. This was the case, for example, following a debate on the themes of ESG and responsible IT, which enabled one of our clients who participated in the debate to significantly increase their visibility. Other journalists who belonged to the IT and Business press also took advantage of these debates to identify new experts to comment on upcoming issues. They then contacted our press officers to arrange a 1to1 videoconference interview to delve deeper into the subject and gather relevant, usable information.

If this article won you over, join the Club de la Presse Informatique B2B now!

We will work with you to outline the best strategy for getting in touch with key journalists and successfully taking part in the club’s next networking evening 😉.

Alexandra Corbelli