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Mostly, I enjoy my interaction with ski PR people, the kings of ski spin. I worked in the biz before I switched to the reporter side, so I know the rigors and I remember well the verboten terms that shall not be named: rain, fog, crowds, broken, injury, death, derailment. I don’t envy ski resort PR people during their long season, holidays in the office, and days that start pre-dawn with snow reporting and end long after the base lodge and parking lots empty out. Add today’s 24/7 social media for more mayhem plus the unplanned pop-up news crews looking for “dirty laundry,” and it can be a tough job.
So I hesitate to seem like an ingrate and bring up my pet peeves. But as Jerry Maguire so famously put it, “Help me help you.” Here, from a ski journalist’s perspective, are some Dos and Don’ts on how to meet, greet and give support to your ski media peeps.


Top 10 Ski Journalist Peeves

1. Don’t be late for our ski date, especially first tracks. I will be there. I live with deadlines, I assume you do, too. Inviting writers and photographers for early turns is among the best privileges you can provide. Your resort gets to flaunt its best corduroy, the journalist gets fresh tracks, perhaps even powder. The photographer can capture amazing morning light without a bunch of awkward skiers and riders flying into the frame. This rare opportunity leaves a lasting impression. Side note: Do wear bright photogenic colors (read: not gray, white or black) in the event you are featured in our photos.

2. Don’t suggest we meet for coffee at the same time the lifts open. We came to ski your mountain, not to chat over coffee inside the lodge (or worse, your office) while chairs are whizzing by and cord is getting crushed. I am still befuddled every time we get the “Let’s meet for coffee at 9 a.m.” invitation. It happens often from New England to Colorado, Québec to Switzerland. We can meet for coffee, tea and more at 4.

3. Don’t show up for an on-snow chairlift interview with press kit in hand. What am I supposed to do with a folder full of news releases or a bag of swag while we are skiing? Ideally, you would have snail-mailed or e-mailed your media info prior to our visit so I could research your resort in advance. If not, toss me a USB with all your goodies or offer to provide that collateral and logo wear at an après-ski meeting.

4. Do vet your ski guide before sending me out with him or her. Do you want me to write about the guide that pops nitro pills between runs, or the instructor that skis us down an avalanche chute just after it slid? How about your social media dude who continues to dump on his snowboard, bragging that he just switched over from skiing a few days earlier? Touring with the new PR girl who doesn’t know her way around, and doesn’t ski black diamonds, is not the resort intro we are looking for, either. Send us out with a competent guide, or just let us explore with a trail map and we can meet later. On the flip side, you don’t need to show off, either. The face-plant by a New England ski resort owner on his “favorite trail” remains hilarious to my kids, but had to be humiliating for him after boasting of his ski prowess.

5. Don’t hit on my teenage daughter, or me, or anyone else during our media tour. You would think this would go without saying, but it has happened several times. A Canadian Rocky Mountain tour guide once tried to separate me from my husband by sending him down a different trail. It didn’t help that he talked incessantly about himself. Then there was the Austrian guide eager to reveal his naked iPhone photos when he got me alone on a double chair. He also told me he accepts tips of all kinds.

6. Don’t overshare what the last journalist wrote. I would prefer not to spend our limited and valuable time talking about what Joe Ink from Central News covered. I want my work to be fresh and innovative. I appreciate your input, but I don’t need to be told what to write, especially if it’s already been done.

7. Don’t make me feel unwelcome. Do you want ski journalists to visit or not? I often get the sense ski PR people see themselves as media gatekeepers rather than emissaries for their resort. Every season, we receive elaborate all-inclusive press invitations, soup to nuts comp stays with skiing, meals, spa treatments and more. Looks great but the dates don’t gel with our calendar and/or the jam-packed agenda is not relevant to my editorial plans. When we inquire with the host or PR agency about visiting another available non-peak time with a planned article in mind (not expecting all the promised bells and whistles of the press trip), they completely drop the ball, never follow up, and the much-hyped site visit never happens. Neither does the ink we both wanted.

8. Do be clear about what is included and what is not in our media visit so we can budget accordingly. You think your media budget is tight? Try a writer’s pay. Clearly communicate any charges and arrival instructions, first to me (the media) and then share those details with the pertinent service desks to avoid surprises, confusion, and last minute phone calls (if you don’t find these awkward, your staff and I certainly do). When you say tickets will be at the ticket window, be specific, and be sure to have them there. The ticket booth runaround happens all too frequently.

9. Don’t snag my leads or my livelihood. You work for the resort now, I work for the media. When one PR gal was contacted by my editor for fact-checking, she convinced the publication to use her photos instead—and provide photo credit to her personally. Way to pull one over on your ski writer peeps.

10. Do acknowledge receipt of clippings or links to articles featuring your resort. A quick reply will suffice. A truly surprising correspondence came from a PR agent for a tourism department asking me to refrain from sending article links and social media mentions when published, requesting instead a summary in a year after all my related articles had been placed. Have it your way, but you might want to see the “news” and chime in on the social media as it happens...

Finally, don’t tell me how beautiful your resort is in summer and how I should really come back then. I am a ski writer, and I am at your resort now ready to ski and report on that. I am sure your mountain resort is gorgeous in the summer, but the Maine coast is pretty nice, too.

A lifelong skier whose family ran a ski lodge in Vermont, Heather Burke is editor of www.familyskitrips.com and www.luxuryskitrips.com. She writes for Boston.com, Liftopia, and Forbes Travel Guide. She lives in Kennebunkport, Me., with her husband and photographer, Greg.