PR Technique: The changing market influences coverage.

Financial PR pros are faced with a new set of challenges in working with media in this sector, finds Craig McGuire.

Market turmoil, dwindling budgets, and fierce competition online and at the newsstand are reshaping financial media. For some PR pros, this means adjusting to a tabloid approach to coverage.

Drew Ferguson, VP in Ketchum's Midwest corporate practice, points to last August, when the credit crunch boiled over and the secondary markets for financing mortgage securities ground to a halt.

'In the financial services sector, it's almost as if the tabloid style of journalism has led reporters and editors to try and top each other with the most outrageous headlines and insinuations - whether or not the facts supported their thesis,' he says. 'As we've worked with one of our clients through this environment, we've certainly had to do more work to correct misinformation or factual errors.'

More than ever, Ferguson says, financial PR pros must be able to sniff out a reporter angling for a sensationalistic scoop.

'In so many cases recently, reporters see an item in a 10-Q or 8-K that looks like it's perfect for a screaming headline, but the truth is that it's hardly news at all, just legalese,' Ferguson says. 'By listening to reporters' premises, we've found that we can work more closely with them to develop more accurate stories.'

Facing such relentless fishing, Joe Poulos, VP/group manager in Edelman's financial communications and IR practice, says financial PR pros must constantly hone crisis management skills and financial acumen.