Gaining media attention

1. What is news?

News is…

primarily about people.

• What they say and what they do.
• Ordinary things happening to extraordinary people.
• Extraordinary things happening to ordinary people.
• Committees, councils, businesses, governments, charities . . . . . are people
• Fires, accidents and planning decisions involve and affect people.

about change.

• Whatever's new! It is about the major events that shape society.
• What is different - sometimes for the better, often for the worse.
• What is a first or exceptional
• "Dog bites man" is not news. "Man bites dog" is!
• Something I didn’t know but I’m now glad I do.
• A disruption of the normal

whatever the editor thinks is news!

• Papers will often have their own agenda
• News is what people are trying to hide
• As one newspaper proprietor said:

"News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising!"

News ingredients

Conflict	Danger or benefit to the community	Crisis
Unusual behaviour	Controversy	Dispute
Scandal	Hardship	Pain
Emotion	Strong opinions	Novelty
Announcement	Innovation	New ideas
Individualism	Challenge	Progress

2. Gaining attention

1. Gaining the attention of the media is a most cost effective means of promotion as part of a media strategy to develop a positive public relationship.
2. Present your news professionally and accessibly as a News Release. Your news will have to compete with hundreds of other items so it has to have real value and stand out in the pile. Address your story to the News Editor.
3. Offer photos or photo opportunities a picture is worth a thousand words!
4. Compile a mailing list of all the media outlets in your area; newspapers, radio and television stations. Include local or regional news agencies and free sheets. This information is regularly updated in a number of media industry guides.
5. Read your local papers. Study them carefully and get to know their style. Take note of each section: news, features, finance, sport, motoring, woman's pages, fashion, cooking, D I Y, politics, gardening, fishing. Each is a potential opportunity for the right sort of story. Seek an invitation to visit the Newsroom to know more.
6. Listen to your local radio stations and watch regional television programmes. Get to know the whole spectrum of their output - and think how you might get coverage on them. Again offer to visit.
7. Church stories can make interesting features. We have some extraordinary people and, even when they do ordinary things, these can attract media interest. When they do extraordinary things this is news!
8. Target your approach and tailor your story to appeal to a specific section of the paper or programme. It is well worth discussing an idea with the journalist responsible at an early stage so that you can work up the detail as helpfully as possible. If you are targeting a particular journalist or reporter then make sure you spell his or her name correctly.
9. Get to know who's who at the news desk or in the newsroom. Be sure to keep the list up to date. Cultivate as many personal contacts as possible the personal touch often brings good results! Offering the occasional exclusive story can be very beneficial here!
10. Be prepared to volunteer your background. Journalists like to know who they working with. Remember, you are representing an organisation, not just yourself.
11. Learn the various deadlines and plan for them. This is particularly important in the case of weekly newspapers. A press release issued on Thursday could well miss this week's edition and be history by the following weekend. The ‘overnight pages’ of today’s evening paper were laid out yesterday afternoon.
12. Find out when there is a shortage of news and take advantage of it! The ‘Silly Season’, when Parliament is in recess, has local equivalents. August is a good time to get in-depth coverage of a major idea or initiative – even if it will not be launched until the New Year! ( You may then get a second bite!) Always try to have an idea up your sleeve and get a reputation for being someone who can help on a quiet day.

3. Getting coverage for stories

These options can be used either individually or in multiple to promote a story or more sustained media campaign:

1. News Release (Press Release). Anything that is newsworthy can be turned into a news or press release. The media use them to fill gaps, to form the basis of bigger stories, or file them to link with others to make future stories. If the timing and subject are right they can make whole stories in themselves. They must be short, sharp and to the point. (See "Writing a News Release".)
2. Press Conference. This is for major stories that reporters are bound to want to ask questions about. The subject is important. The speakers are interesting and important enough to be worth listening to. Getting the media to a press conference means you have some control over the content of their stories. Having spent time at the conference they are less likely to go looking for other people's quotes and should believe they have the whole story. Use press conferences sparingly. Don't build them up to be more important than they are. (See "Setting Up A Press Conference".)
3. Press Briefing. There may be times when a story would be best treated by a select group of reporters. A press briefing is really a mini-press conference, where you sit your speakers at one end of a large table and your reporters around the other three sides. Rather than having a few speeches and then some questions, a briefing would start off with an information sheet setting out the story, a spoken explanation and then a discussion with the reporters. While a press conference is always on the record, a press briefing can be off the record or parts of it can be as agreed with the reporters. It is a way of getting all the information over to a group of known and trusted reporters without leaving yourself open to awkward questions from less experienced reporters at a press conference. Again, use sparingly.
4. Exclusive. There may be times when you have a story that is interesting but not sufficiently so for radio, television and papers to use when they know everyone else has got it, too. You may get someone to use it by offering them an exclusive. This way you forego the chance of wide coverage but, if all you are going to get is four lines in three local papers, this way you might get six or seven inches of copy and a photo or an extended radio or television interview. Pick the media carefully - a paper, local radio, regional television. Go for the one which is most likely to bite and contact a reporter you know is interested. Get all the information together, write it up as a news story - don't put it on press or news release paper -and give it to the reporter to either use or work on.
5. Tip Off. This is very similar to offering an exclusive but takes a lot less of your time. Rather than it being a story that you, yourself, need to publicise, it is something that you have come across that will make your organisation look good. All you do is think who might use it, who you owe a favour to or who you want to cultivate, phone them up, give them the basic details as you understand them, tell them who to contact and let them get on with it. It may be just as well to let the people involved know what you are up to.
6. Letters Page. This a good place to get publicity. The 'Letters' Editor is looking for punchy, articulate letters which are topical and sometimes controversial. You can write letters to local, regional and national newspapers. Letters are useful for correcting inaccurate reporting of an event, but always include more information to your benefit and add to the original story. A letter to the 'Letters Page' is a good way to flag up future events. Letters pages are not there to supply you with free advertising, so your letter must have a link with something that is already in the news. Study the letters page and try to imitate the length and style of the letters in it. Get into debate by writing a response to a letter which has just appeared, putting another point of view. (See "Letters to the Editor".)
7. Feature Placing. First you need a good subject. Then go for a paper or magazine with a small staff. Ring the editor or news editor, explain the subject and ask if they would like a piece. Agree how many words, pictures and the deadline. If the subject is good, they might bite. If you are really lucky, they might decide to send someone along to do it themselves and so save you a lot of time. Alternatively you could write the feature and hawk it around until someone bites. The problem with doing it this way is getting the style right for the buyer. Whenever writing for a publication, make sure you know it well enough to be able to write in its style.
8. Photocall. The printed media are always after good photos; if there is action involved, television too. A good photocall can make or break a story. It can even be a story in its own right. However, the subject must be photogenic and the storyline a good one. If you are having a photocall, make sure there is a good background. Try to find an interesting location where photographers can find their own artistic viewpoints. Have some props available for the subjects to be doing something with. (See "Press Photographs".)

4. Pegs on which to hang a story

• Launch a campaign.
• Issue a report or annual report.
• Hold a meeting
• Lobby someone else's meeting.
• Get backing from a well-known personality.
• Send a letter (to an MP or to the Company concerned).
• Get a lot of children together to do something.
• Mark an anniversary.
• Announce a new appointment.
• Welcome proposals.
• Condemn new proposals.
• Unveil plans for the year.
• Present a cheque (in an imaginative way) or receive a cheque.
• Make an award or receive an award.
• Announce oldest/youngest/100th/1000th . . . whatever!
• Urge government/local authority to take action!
• Reveal unlikely people working together.
• Claim first or last person to do this . . . !
• Announce new scheme or project.
• React to news with what it means for local people.
• Invite celebrity or dignitary to visit. (They don't have to accept!)
• Organise a competition.
• Introduce a new product.
• Move, refurbish or build new premises.
• Take part in local event/parade/fun run.
• Dream up a publicity stunt.

5. Targeting

1. Identify who (reader, listener, viewer) you want to respond to your message. This is known as "targeting".
2. Relate your message (the style), through the right media (the conduit), to the identified audience (the target), in order to achieve the desired response (the result).
3. Targeting therefore includes choosing the most effective means to achieve this. Whether to use radio, television, or the press one or the other or a combination of all three, local or national.
4. The likely audience or readership in terms of age, sex, social group, ethnic background and geographic location will be determined by time of day, the type of newspaper or magazine, choice of television channel or radio station.
5. Audience research is invaluable when determining not only what your message/story should say but how it should be "packaged" as an item of news, or the subject of an interview or report, a feature or article.
6. Effective targeting relies on being aware of the varied forms of media, knowing the opportunities that are available and setting out to make full use of them.