By Glenn Whitney

Woody Allen once said that 90% of success in life comes from just showing up on time. It’s certainly true about developing positive relationships with the media.

Journalists, however, sometimes make it difficult. They can be elusive, unappreciative and even downright rude.



Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin entrepreneur, is one of the world’s masters of the art of being available to the media and reaping the rewards of a tons of media coverage over several decades, the majority of which has been positive if not to say full-on fawning.

A splendid anecdotal example of his style comes from the autobiography of the Olympic sailor Ben Ainslie (Close to the Wind). Branson demonstrates the three essential qualities needed to get the media to promote your interests: Patience, Persistence and Politeness. This story comes from an ultimately failed attempt a few years ago to break the world record crossing the Atlantic:

“We went down below, and got on the satellite phone, as (Branson) had scheduled an interview with ITN,” Ainslie writes. “With the wind blowing at about 35 knots, the boat’s all over the place and even down below it’s pretty rough and loads of people are throwing up. Richard calls and gets some woman on the other end.
‘Hello, ITN,’ she says.
‘Hello, it’s Richard Branson here. I was asked to call this number to do an interview.’
‘Richard who?’
‘It’s Sir Richard Branson here. I’m sailing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and I’m supposed to call this number.’
‘No, sorry. Don’t know anything about it.’
I half expected him to lose his cool.
Eventually, he got through. Then the phone kept cutting out. But he was incredibly patient. Very professional…”