Think Like a Journalist: How to Write Messages That Withstand Media Scrutiny
Picture this: A CEO sends a heartfelt, honest internal memo to staff about a tough round of layoffs. It’s a hard time, the company has fought valiantly, and the entire team has put their shoulder to the wheel, but cost savings have to be found. Deep in paragraph four, as the CEO explains some of the challenges, there’s this line:
“While we’ve seen incredible dedication across the board, the challenges of maintaining alignment in a hybrid environment have made it harder to sustain the level of collaboration we need to compete.”
Within hours, the memo leaks. But the headline on every tech blog the next morning isn’t about compassion or strategic realignment. It reads: "CEO Blames Remote Workers for Company Cuts." That single, offhand line in paragraph four? It's the story now, and it sparks an entire conversation about leaders hating remote workers, with the CEO as the focus.
Ultimately, you don’t control what the message will be once it leaves the room. But you can at least anticipate what will become tomorrow’s headline,
Every sentence has the potential to be the story. As a leader, your job is to anticipate how others will interpret your words. To do that, you have to think like a journalist.
Journalists Don’t Read Like You Do
Most readers seek to understand. Journalists seek a story.
They scan for misdirection and contradictions. They’re trained to ask: What’s the angle? What’s new here? What’s not being said? What are they trying to downplay or hide? And that’s if they’re thorough, knowledgable journalists. Lesser, more harried journalists who don’t know the nuance or back story are more tuned to what's tweetable or what will give them a hooky headline.
Their incentives aren’t the same as yours. A journalist needs a hook that sells: the lines that generate the most heat are the ones that generate emotion. The clichés are that to engage, you enrage. Hate clicks are great clicks. To that end, any ambiguity is an opportunity to ask questions openly and extrapolate out possible meaning. If your statement leaves gaps, they’ll fill them, asking why you didn’t. If your tone suggests distance, they’ll highlight it. If you bury the lead, they’ll dig it out and elevate it—possibly out of context. Everything in your past or your company’s past that can be made relevant will be.
This doesn’t make the media an enemy – they’re just doing their job. It makes them a force to anticipate. If your message isn’t framed deliberately, someone else will do the framing, with no concern for how flattering it may be.
The First Instinct: What Will They Pull Out?
When a journalist scans a leadership message, here’s what they instinctively look for:
What’s new? Any announcement, shift, or data point.
What contradicts previous statements? Any change in tone or position.
What sounds charged or quotable? Anything emotional, absolute, or hyperbolic.
What sounds important but is actually vague? Corporate speak with room for interpretation.
Consider this memo line: "We will continue to right-size our workforce to align with our long-term vision." Translation? Layoffs are coming. Headline? "Company Plans More Job Cuts Amid Vision Realignment."
Every leader should do a "red pen review" of key messages: circle the lines most likely to become pull quotes. Then ask: Is that what I want on a billboard? Would I stand behind that phrase if it went viral? What would the headline be if this was the main point.
Write not just with your internal audience in mind, but with your unintended audience in mind. Because that’s who will determine your narrative.
How to Write With Media Optics in Mind
To anticipate media framing, build it into your process. Here’s how:
Step 1: Write your core message. What do you need to communicate, and why? Why now? What’s essential?
Step 2: Ask, "What’s the worst-faith interpretation?" Imagine a cynic or critic reading this, your worst competitor or enemy twisting what you say to their nefarious ends. What headline would they write? How can you lessen their ability to do that?
Step 3: Ask, "What’s the most tweetable line?" Assume a reporter can only quote 10 words. Which ones do you think they’ll use? How might that be interpreted by the various audiences you need to reach?
Step 4: Revise for clarity, tone, and control. Your goal isn’t defensiveness—it’s intentionality. Make it hard to misread, easy to quote accurately.
Techniques to apply:
Avoid vague qualifiers. Phrases like "in some ways," "perhaps," or "may potentially" offer too much wiggle room.
Pre-empt predictable critiques. Acknowledge the tough stuff directly: "We understand this will be difficult for many, and we don’t take it lightly."
Control your frame. State clearly what this message is and isn’t about. Contextualize. Anchor the narrative before someone else does.
Optional: Press-Safe Message Checklist:
Does this message say something new?
Could any line be read out of context?
Have I buried the lead?
Is there a phrase here I’d regret seeing in a headline?
Am I clearly communicating the "why" behind the message?
Think of your message as a raw press release, even if it’s just for your team. Because it might be the next thing read by millions.
When You Want to Be Covered, Not Quoted
Not all press is accidental. When you want a message to get picked up on your terms, you end up writing with coverage in mind, rather than containment. Then, you’re thinking like a journalist in a different way.
Let’s say you're launching a new product, announcing a partnership, or shifting strategy. You hope TechCrunch or Axios bites. The challenge here here is to make it easy for them to summarize accurately, and appealing enough that they’ll reach out to dig a little deeper. Journalists hate to admit they’re writing off a press release - they have to get something else out of the transaction. Maybe it’s a little exclusive access to person or product.
You’ll end up foregrounding the news, using crisp, declarative language, but avoiding unnecessary flourish or superfluous detail. You’ll add quotable context: explain not just what’s happening, but why it matters. Package the insight with the facts.
The desired outcome determines the form. If you’re trying to land a brand message, or seed a new way of thinking about your product, you may want to drop a quotable breadcrumb. When you’re trying to become the story you need to consider all of the context that will make that feel authentic and memorable and aligned with your goals, and untwistable by the knaves who might seek to make a trap for fools.
Above all else, remember this: You don’t necessarily need to be media-trained. You need to be media-aware.
Every message you send as a leader — even internal ones — will become part of your public record. The more you train yourself to think like a journalist, the more control you'll retain over your narrative.
Seek help, above all. Workshop your message on trusted ears. If you’re unsure whether your draft will pass the newsroom test, that’s where I can help. I’ve led newsrooms, I’ve been the reporter looking for the way in I offer editorial advisory services and tailored comms workshops to help leaders write with media optics in mind. Because every message is an opportunity to lead—if you frame it right.
