Occasionally, a reporter will offer to show you story before it runs. That’s different. It’s usually because they want to check facts, or ensure that they have quoted you correctly.

Always say yes if they initiate this offer. Even if you have 12 meetings tomorrow morning, and are undergoing surgery after lunch. This is a chance to make yourself sound as knowledgeable and intelligent as possible to thousands of potential clients that will read article.

Information: Dr. Jones is a leading authority on certain rare infectious diseases, lecturing and writing on subject in world’s most distinguished medical journals and colloquia.

News: The Governor of Dr. Jones’s state contracts one of those diseases, and uncertainty over his ability to remain in office swirls. Dr. Jones does not treat Governor, so he cautions that he cannot comment on specifics of this case. But calmly and objectively, he explains to reporters in lay terms general facts about this kind of illness, pointing out that 90% of people with it recover promptly with treatment once diagnosed.

Information: broad, deep, and evergreen.

News: narrower, shallower, but timely and topical.

The knowledge within it is no less true, real, or important. It’s just been distilled into bite-sized bits that fit space in paper, time on show, or audience’s attention span. Distilling that information into news, and then assembling it into appealing packages called stories, is essentially what news media do.

So don’t be like one of those characters in an Alfred Hitchcock movie – getting in trouble because you know too much. Instead, learn to slice and dice your topic into many narrower, manageable offerings.