Definition
Press strategy is the deliberate management of relationships with reporters, editors, and publishers to shape what does and does not appear in print about an institution and its head. Robert Moses ran one of the most effective press strategies of the twentieth century — a press-release pipeline, a stable of friendly columnists, exclusive briefings for cooperative reporters, and a freezing-out of any journalist who broke from the line.
For three decades the New York papers covered Moses largely as he wished to be covered. Caro's biography is, in part, a delayed rebuttal made possible only by Moses's late-career fall from press protection.
Why it matters
How it works
A press strategy at industrial scale has three components: a constant supply of pre-written copy ready for deadline pressure, a hand-picked set of trusted journalists who get the early call, and a clear, credible threat to withdraw access from any reporter who fails to play along. The administrator who can deliver all three becomes, in effect, his own editor.
The brittleness of the strategy is that it depends on the underlying record being mostly defensible. Once a credible critic — a public figure, a federal investigator, or a determined biographer — establishes that the official line is false, the friendly press has to choose between its access and its credibility. The collapse, when it comes, is fast.