The humble Toilet Paper Entrepreneur shares its 54 top PR tips for entrepreneurs here. I like number 46, one I recently tapped after meeting a weather reporter who said, “Yes, please send me anywhere for my live shots! We are ALWAYS in need of them.”

So many clients get freaked out with TV interviews, and it can be understood: live TV is a one-shot opportunity, a no “re-do” spot. So are interviews with media on the phone or simply in person.

Here are some media prep tips from David Rourk’s blog:

- Prepare by speaking in short sound bites — avoid long, rambling stories. The tighter the better. Try to condense your thoughts into their most potent, descriptive words. A reporter is only allotted so many words and so much time, so make it easy for him or her. This also cuts down on the chances of being misquoted and damaging your public relations efforts.

- Prepare by using bridging statements when needed. There will be times when a reporter knows little about your profession or the issue he or she is asked to cover. Or, the reporter may have bad research information from the Internet, which is loaded with good, bad and misleading information. A bridging statement gets you past those potentially damaging questions and refocuses the interview on what’s important. This is not dodging a question. It is helping the reporter get the story correct.

- Prepare for the unexpected. Never tear off the mic and storm away. No one has pulled this off in a professional manner. Better to hold your ground, stay on message and maintain your composure and professionalism — most likely the media is on a tighter deadline than you are.

- Prepare for the pre-interview chit-chat phase. Establish rapport with the reporter before the interview. Remember, the whole interaction is on-the-record. Avoid talking about anything you don’t want repeated in the paper or on TV.

Put yourself in the reporter’s shoes. If an expert gives you great quotes or analyses which easily fall into place, chances are you’ll call that person again. However, if an interviewee speaks in jargon with rambling, incoherent sentences, you’ll never call that person back because you’ll find someone just as good who understands your needs.

The Wall Street Journal has been all over the Big 3’s very public cry for government assistance. Here’s a CEO interview with Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, conducted by the Wall Street Journal. The article surrounds Mulally’s statement that he is “very concerned” for GM and Chrysler. Hmm. How about concerned for Ford? Obviously Mulally is, but this excerpt struck me as some balanced attempt to seem sympathetic but removed from his competitors’ issues.

Here’s one statement Mulally made:
“We are a in a different place” than other auto makers, Mr. Mulally said. “We believe we have sufficient liquidity to get through this recession. But if the economy continued to deteriorate and the industry continued to deteriorate, then even Ford might have to need a bridge loan also.”

While American car maker beg for government bail outs, others are looking to swipe up opportunities. Here’s a quick CEO interview with Volvo AB CEO, Leif Johansson, who has a positive outlook about the global economy.

Also, AB Volvo is a supplier of commercial transport solutions providing products, such as trucks, buses, construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, as well as aircraft engine components.

Price Waterhouse Coopers does a CEO interview with Peter Bakker, CEO of TNT. You can click here to read and watch the interview. An important issue comes up in this CEO interview-whether CEOs should know how or be accountable for predicting the future correctly, or not. In this crazy world says Bakker, it’s hard to nail the future dead on.

John Barr, a Communications professional of 30 years from Canada, blogged about a touchy subject PR folks sometimes to not like to talk about: why PR can fail flat on its face. It happens and here’s John’s take on why:

“Public relations is about using persuasion and relationship-building to build support for an organization, individual or cause. Provided it is carried out ethically, it is an important ingredient of democratic politics and an open society.

In the real world, however, “public relations” (or something that calls itself public relations), sometimes fails to achieve its stated purpose (building public support). There are two very common times when this happens:

• When it deteriorates into spin-doctoring to promote indefensible actions, behavior or policies;

• When it becomes nothing more than self-promotional hype and fails to establish a legitimate public need or the public interest.

Examples of both are all too common and include:

• Companies who blame their product failures not on the real problem (a lack of value in the product) but on “negative media” or “nit-picking consumerists”;

• Companies who blame their falling stock price on “negative analysts” or short sellers, when their real problem is poor business decisions or management misbehavior;

• Organizations (governments are a prime offender) that blame their problems on a “failure to get out our message.”

These are not failures of legitimate public relations strategies. They are examples of confusing a “communications” problem with a “reality” problem.

What separates the public relations professional from the public relations pretender is the honesty to see the real problem, the intelligence to analyze it correctly, the creativity to devise a solution to it, and the courage to speak about all of these things straight from the shoulder.

Here’s a CEO interview with one of my favorite powerhouse companies in San Diego-Qualcomm. Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm, shares his thoughts about taking risks, fostering an innovative company culture, and global markets.

Men don’t have too many choices when it comes to getting dressed for business settings. . .or any settings, for that matter. Here’s a WSJ CEO interview with Schematic CEO WPP Trevor Kaufman who explains a different direction he is taking for men’s business attire.

This CEO interview reminds me of one I did for Ichor Medical Devices for San Diego’s Best and Brightest. In this CEO interview by One Med Place, Roger Kolanski, CEO Critical Care Innovations (CCI), a biotechnology-driven device company, talks about the company’s minimally-invasive, site-specific and image-guided cancer management systems. There’s a bit of medical jargon, but the main point is that Critical Care Innovations is able to pinpoint treatment of cancer, vs. traditional methods that let harmful cancer drugs seep throughout the body.

Bruce Freeman, president of ProLine Communications, a marketing and public relations firm in Livingston, N.J, shares some tips on getting into the national media eye. Read his full article here. In the meantime, here are some pointers:

• Pursue every angle: To generate national media attention, you need to think in terms of newsworthy stories, not product or services. Media pros are interested in stories that people will find interesting and entertaining. One of the best ways to create a pitch with national appeal is to gear it to hot trends or topics.

• Pursue every channel: In building national exposure for clients, you’ll need to take advantage of every possible media outlet, from radio and cable TV to the Internet.

• Leave no stone unturned: Use your networking skills to build your list of media contacts and then stay in touch with them tactfully but persistently. Try to position your clients as an expert resource that the media can rely on.

• Create an unusual and entertaining event: One of the best ways to attract national attention is to come up with an exciting, unique event. To promote our book, we are launching a “Birthing the Elephant” national tour. The tour brings together our book, zoos across the country with baby elephants, and women entrepreneurs. This unique program gives women business owners an exciting venue to discuss important issues while their children take part in supervised fun and educational activities. The zoos benefit from increased attendance and awareness.