Dissecting a remarkably positive WSJ story

I saw the headline on the WSJ home page and couldn’t believe how positive it was.

A few grafs in, I was still waiting for the figurative moment where the documentary voiceover goes, “But all was not as it seemed . . .”

Never came. The piece is 100 percent flattering of Costco. No conflict. Perfectly on message for employees, customers and investors.

I don’t know whether Costco pitched this story or the Journal pursued it. But the finished piece shows the ingredients a company needs to make available before coverage this favorable is even possible.

I’ll lay it out for you here in a way you can apply for your own pitches.

Here’s the article – you’ll see the great headline, subhead and photo even in front of the paywall.

The piece continues with solid proof points:

• Tony, a longtime cashier, bought a house with a pool and has taken his family to Europe twice
• Stats on Costco’s low employee turnover and high customer satisfaction scores
• Recent hike to maximum hourly pay rate
• Stock is up 2,000% in the last 20 years

Those facts support the main point of the piece. They don’t, by themselves, explain why the Journal devoted a feature to it.

The following are what differentiated Costco from competitors who are probably bummed they were left out of the piece.

A real human being who embodies what the story is about

This is not a story element a PR team can just conjure out of nowhere. Someone has to do the legwork to find a person with rare experiences who is willing to share them publicly.

In this case, tragically, Tony’s son ended his life months before Tony’s wife was diagnosed with stage 3 brain cancer. Costco’s health insurance covered the full cost of her three brain surgeries. And the company gave him paid leave for nearly a year to help his family.

That is a rare level of support for front-line employees.

Unique proprietary data and willing executives

Costco revealed internal data that their average cashiers check out 57 shoppers per hour, and the fastest do 70. Those numbers give the reporter a fact readers and competitors couldn’t get elsewhere. More importantly, they provide evidence for Costco’s argument that higher pay can actually boost the bottom line.

The story also quotes Costco’s CFO – but only once, for just a paragraph. To land something this good, you must be willing to grant access and also set expectations with your execs that such access doesn’t come with guarantees.

Unscripted access that lets the reporter verify the story

The journalist shadowed Tony for a day in Tucson to validate and enrich the story. When you give a journalist full access like that, you’ve got to understand they’ll report whatever they see.

Clearly whoever ran this story for Costco did their homework in advance, because everything about Tony screams dream employee. One shopper told him “I came to get my hug” before giving him one. His supervisor and store manager gave excellent details that fit the narrative of the piece.

And the story ends with Tony saying, “I would say this is my calling, right where I’m at.”

When I was a journalist, if one of my sources gave me a quote as perfect as that, I would have had to restrain myself from turning a cartwheel with joy.

In summary

An extraordinarily positive placement requires an extraordinary amount of legwork, internal persuasion and nose for narrative.

The next time a boss or client points to a story like this and asks, “Why can’t we get coverage like that?,” walk through the requirements:

• Do we have evidence this specific?
• That our competitors don’t have?
• Proprietary facts the reporter can’t get elsewhere?
• A human experience that makes the claim concrete?
• Access broad enough to let the reporter verify it independently?

And if you do, go get glowing coverage like this!