Getting Coverage: An Insider’s Guide to Media Relations
Rex Evans Wood
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 Rex Evans Wood
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Introduction
Nothing beats news coverage for getting your message out to the public. It's more credible than advertising and it's certainly cheaper. Media coverage can help advance your cause, sell your product and improve your image. Positive publicity is also a morale booster, enhancing the pride of employees, volunteers and financial supporters.
Most people are unaware of their potential for media coverage. Getting Coverage begins with a methodology for developing that potential. It continues with tips on contacting the media and working with the media. It concludes with a section on handling public relations crisis. Exercises that are ideal for small groups and workshops are also included.
Media relations is a vast topic. The goal of this book is to be a quick read covering the most valuable and significant areas. The book is ideal for nonprofit organizations, activists, businesses, students and anyone else wishing to have a better understanding of local and regional media relations.
About the Author
Rex Evans Wood (Skip) has worked in broadcasting since 1974. For 21 years he was a television news producer. He went on to report for radio with Public News Service, where he continues as an editor. Since 1999, he has also worked for Prairie Public Broadcasting as producer for the Hear It Now talk show. He has conducted countless workshops for non-profit organizations sharing the “MAP” formula. He has also written several articles for magazines. His novel Truitt’s Fix, a science fiction thriller, is available as an e-book at Smashwords.com. Contact: skip (at) gomoorhead.com
Links work in EPUB, MOBI and PDF formats.
Links found in the text will return you to the contents.
CHAPTER 1: The “MAP” to Coverage
The “MAP” formula … Message … Appeal ... What News Outlets Don't Want … Pegs … "MAP" Example … Unbundling ... Example #2 … MAP Exercise
CHAPTER 2: Shaping Your Story
Message points ... Careful Message Crafting … Supporting Points ... Credibility … Event Scheduling
CHAPTER 3: The News Release
The Basics ... The Headline ... A Sample Release … The Casual Alternative … The Double-Space Debate … Summarize a Lengthy Document … Fleshing it Out … Providing Video … Providing Interviewees … Sending a Finished Story … The News Tip
CHAPTER 4: Making Contact
Timing (news cycles) ... Embargoes ... Mail, Email or Fax? … Developing Your Media List … Border Towns … Spreading Your News … Additional Opportunities … Talk Shows … Checklist … When to Call … When They Call You
CHAPTER 5: Participation
Soundbites ... Soundbite Killers … Keeping on Message ... When They Fail to Ask … Be Conversational … Keeping Your Cool … Appearance … Eye Contact? … Refer to Reporters by Name? … The Microphone … Strange Reporter Behavior … Off the Record … Cutaways … Talk Show Performance … News Conferences … Table vs. Podium … Evaluating Your Results … Responding to Media Mistakes … Performance Exercise … Make Media Relations a Habit
CHAPTER 6: When the News is Bad
Handling a Crisis ... Plan Ahead ... Common Legal Questions
News media coverage is a powerful tool for getting the word out. For organizations without advertising budgets, it can be extremely important. It therefore it makes sense to develop as many opportunities as possible to promote your product, organization, or cause. It's not as hard as you might imagine. To that end, this chapter offers a simple formula: MAP = Coverage.
Message + Appeal + Peg = a story the media will use!
Your story must advance your message, appeal to the media, and it must have a peg that makes your message today's news. In this chapter we will look at these three elements.
The message might seem the easy part – the information you want people to hear. As we'll see, developing your message into a sound story takes some care. It can also be very creative and enjoyable. For now, message is simply your motive for getting news coverage.
Note that occasionally, your main message is implied, not stated. Let's say a business publicizes the accomplishments of an employee, or a nonprofit touts the story of a volunteer. While the story is about the individual, there might be an underlying implication about an organization or an issue. In chapter two, we offer the example of an employee who is a finalist in an espresso bartender contest. The story does not say the store has a fine espresso bar, but that is the obvious implication. An implied message can often be central to your purpose.
To maximize your potential for coverage, you must understand what appeals to news outlets. This is the key. It’s even more important than your message. If you fail to appeal to the media, your message doesn’t matter. This is where many people need to adjust their thinking. It’s the “ah-ha” element of the formula that turns routine press releases into effective releases.
What does the media want? No, it's not just scandal, crime and tragedy, though at times it seems that way. Even more to the point, all news outlets want to appeal to their audience. They want to build audience. They want to be relevant to the audience. No matter how important your message is to you, it’s of no interest to the media outlet if the editor feels it won’t resonate for their readers, listeners or viewers.
For commercial broadcasters and newspapers it's a matter of money – the greater the circulation or ratings, the greater the income. For public stations, it's a matter of attracting membership and providing meaningful content. Either way, editorial decisions involve audience appeal. Consequently, your task is to make sure the audience-appeal elements of your pitch are front and center. You want to present your ideas in ways that maximize audience appeal. This often means looking at a story quite differently.
To understand this further, let's quantify audience appeal by dividing it into four categories:
DIRECT EFFECT - The most immediate way to relate to the audience is with news that has a direct effect on as many people as possible. Framing your pitch to the media based on how the theme affects people can be more important than how it affects you. It's not your new warehouse, it's the new jobs. It's not the state budget shortfall; it's the implications for employees and taxpayers. It's not that your company does business in China, it's the lessons you can share with others about doing business overseas or the jobs this business will produce here at home.
EMPATHY - Audience appeal can also arise out of empathy. When it comes to the new grant landed by a charity, stress the many families to be helped. When it comes to a union's successful organizing effort, stress the workers' struggle against injustice. Whenever appropriate, make people directly affected available for interviews. The audience appeal is the underlying human story. It has much more appeal than the surface issue.
PROFILE – Biography is the most popular form of non-fiction. People love a good personal story. This is particularly effective if your main topic is dry. Imagine someone coming up with a new and improved fan belt. A trade magazine might find that interesting, but a fan belt is too boring for the general audience. On the other hand, the story of an inventor developing the fan belt in a basement workshop could be fabulous.
Let's consider another example. You've written a novel and wish to promote it. Most novels don't make news based on their content, but the author's story is another matter. You might build a headline around quitting the day job to write, the sea of rejections before finally publishing, or finding time to write while taking care of children. None of that is about the novel. Instead, we have surfaced the human story behind the novel.
For some nonprofit organizations, confidentiality issues make it impossible to tell clients' stories. One solution is to create a composite personality that is openly fictional, but true to the life experiences of the people served.
REMARKABLE - Whether you're talking about sub-atomic particles or giant jumbo jets, information people find remarkable makes a good news story. Much of the sensational news we associate with the media falls into this category, but it's also an important element for more routine stories. A few examples: compelling statistics compiled by your nonprofit organization, impressive milestones achieved by your business; or unusual situations, such as a family of ducks living in a window well. A story can also be made remarkable with humor.
Newsroom managers sometimes call the above stories people stories – stories that connect with the audience. Television news managers have even been known to ban airing interviews with officials. The idea is to encourage reporters to avoid interviewing the fire chief in favor of the person who escaped the fire. Rather than the senior citizens' advocate commenting on the high cost of prescription drugs, the news manager prefers an interview with the elderly person who must choose between medication and food. Banning interviews with officials might be extreme, but it illustrates the media's desire to relate more closely to the audience.
These four categories are just one way to break down and analyze audience appeal. To some extent, it’s a matter of common sense. Ask yourself, “What is it about our story idea that people will find interesting?” If you’re stumped, try considering how each of the categories above might apply to your idea. By surfacing (and even creating) these media appeal factors, and by playing down organizational self-interest, you vastly enhance your likelihood of obtaining coverage.
Finally, if you completely draw a blank, that tells you to save the time and energy of contacting the media.
Before we move on to the final part of our formula, the peg, let’s pause to discuss what turns the media off.
1) The news media will not be responsive to news releases that seem little more than a request for a free commercial. "Let them buy an ad," is a common reaction. Such press releases might result in a couple of inches on the business page – if you're lucky. While there are occasions where a new business or a new product makes a good story, it still helps to emphasize what it does for people, how it was developed, or some other compelling information that attracts audience and therefore media.
2) Don’t expect (or worse, demand) coverage because you advertise with a media outlet. Advertising sometimes helps, but using the pressure of being a client can compromise your relationship with journalists. And asking media sales executives for coverage puts them in an uncomfortable spot. However, it is appropriate to suggest a story. An idea with audience appeal will be welcome as long as you don't overdo using the business relationship for leverage. Even a hint of impropriety can discourage coverage by reporters and editors who pride themselves on integrity. Such integrity should be nurtured, not discouraged.
3) Holding a news conference doesn't guarantee coverage. It opens the door, but you still need the requisite audience appeal factors. For example, inexperience politicians sometimes make the mistake of assuming it's enough to be running for office. They might be able to do that if the race has some strong inherent interest, but the average politician is likely to be ignored if they don't have some news to share. I’ve often seen reporters return from such non-news conferences to say, "S/he had nothing to say. S/he just wanted coverage." Editors are happy to drop such stories to make room for something more interesting. The politician would have been wise to announce a position on an issue or to react to developments in the news. The meatier the topic, the better. Even stronger would be an event involving people affected by the issue, thereby introducing several possible audience-appeal factors.
The final part of the MAP formula is the peg – the "news" on which to hang your story. Pegs are also called hooks. Oftentimes, it’s nested within the message or audience appeal, but it’s often quite separate. The peg is often obvious – you have new information to share. It could be your upcoming event, a conflict, legislation, etc. However, a good story can also be about something that is not new, as long as it's new to the audience, or at least enough of the audience to have value. An example might be a story on an interesting way to cope with a disability. The person featured might have come up with the idea years ago, but if it's new to the audience, it can make a good story. Likewise, you can imagine a story on a "retiree" who years ago returned to work delivering papers. Another example might be an interesting lifelong hobby.
Here’s where it really gets fun. The less obvious pegs, the ones you create or find, are where the greatest potential lies for developing additional media opportunities. Ultimately, it's in your power to create a peg at any time! When your message lacks a newsy peg, you can use one from the list below to complete the MAP formula.
Events. Old tried-and-trues like rallies or marches are obvious. Less obvious are seminars and contests. For businesses, tying the event to a charitable purpose can enhance credibility and lessen commercial overtones. Give routine events an interesting theme with audience appeal. If someone from your group attends a major regional or national event (interesting trade show, political convention, protest, foreign trip, etc.), offer that person to the media for a report via phone.
Tie-ins. Look for events outside your group that will allow you to launch a message. For example, a governor's State of the State Address is apt to offer several themes from which you can spin a message. A few other examples are holidays, tax deadlines and existing proclamations such as Education Week or Co-op Month.
Reactions. The reaction is an after-the-fact version of a tie-in, which also uses an outside event to launch a message. For example, an incident of violence could be a peg for speaking out on tolerance or hate crime legislation.
Proclamations. In addition to existing proclamations, you can also request a new proclamation from your mayor or governor. They are often happy to proclaim a day, week, or month in honor of a theme.
Anniversaries. The anniversary of an event can be an opportunity to speak out. History holds countless possibilities. The anniversary of a war ending can be used to comment on peace. The anniversary of legislation passing can be used to comment on social issues. Don't rule out little-known anniversaries. A trip to your local historical society could provide a year's worth of ideas ... presidential visits, great fires, floods, birthdays, etc.
History. In addition to anniversaries, other historical information can also provide a peg. The story of a building, product or place can often be compelling. A little research might yield a fascinating story. Consider using words like "discovery" and "unearthed" in your news release to give history a newsy feel. Likely audience-appeal angles include remarkable information and profiles.
Milestones. Announce a milestone in the number of clients served or products sold. You don't need to be accurate on your count. Honest estimates are acceptable. Find a big, round number and you have a peg.
Web sites. Creating and announcing a website used to be a fairly decent peg. These days, I’m more cautionary. Traditional media outlets have begun to feel threatened by online media, and therefore have become less apt to promote it. With that caveat, a new site or even a page added to an existing site might be worth a try. The content is only limited by your creativity.
Awards. Creating an award can be very effective. A real-life example comes from the consulting firm Ernst & Young. Their Entrepreneur Of The Year™ awards have gone international. One caution: don't be too quick to create an award for the media. Some media outlets look upon them unfavorably as an attempt to influence coverage. You can also be certain that the only media outlet covering such an award will be the winner! Some typical possibilities are an award for a lifetime of achievement or for volunteering.
Adventure. An adventurous experience or a compelling personal tale can make for a strong story. If you have trouble attaching a primary message to this peg, you might still consider it for the positive effect of general publicity.
Dignitaries. A visiting VIP can always draw attention, but not all of them have pull with the media. It helps if they have something worthwhile to talk about. Preferably, your dignitary will have something to say about your main topic of interest, but you can also use an unrelated topic for some collateral attention. Let's say your dignitary is a motorcycle enthusiast. Organizing an event with a local motorcycle club could work nicely.
Meetings and conferences. CAUTION: Meetings, especially long meetings, can be deadly as pegs. They are generally packed with officialdom, they are visually boring, they tie up media staff members that could be covering more interesting stories and they have a way of running up against deadlines. However, the rules of audience appeal still apply. Meetings that include conflict or extremely interesting information can be remarkable. Impassioned testimony can elicit empathy. Important decisions can have direct effect. If your meeting doesn't offer such strengths, it can still be your peg, but seek something special to offer – a theme that resonates with the media's audience, or something apart from the meeting that illustrates the message. As an example of the former, "Children in Crisis" might be a theme for a meeting of nonprofit organizations. For the latter, a recycling enthusiast who makes crafts from common household trash could be the human-interest complement for a community recycling meeting. A meeting is also made more attractive by having spokespersons available for interviews while the meeting is underway, which allows the media to drop by and get the story without having to wait for something worthwhile to happen. Prominently note the immediate availability of such interviews in your invitations to the media.
Bold assertion. A credible person or group can create a peg by making a strong statement. An example: "Too many children live in poverty in our state." Joining in coalition with other groups can lend power to the assertion.
Appeals. A group or coalition can gain publicity for an issue by sending a letter to policy makers urging action (or inaction) and sending a copy of the letter as part of a news release. This can also work in conjunction with a news conference, rally, etc. You might even create an informal group or coalition for just one occasion. Give group a memorable name, perhaps with a snappy acronym.
Surveys and studies. A quick, random survey can provide an instant peg, and you don't necessarily have to do your own – you can tie-in or react to the work of others. The information doesn't even need to be new. "Recent" studies or surveys can do the trick. A search of the Internet can often turn up a suitable survey or study. Even 100 answers from a street corner survey or telephone poll can do the trick, allowing you to easily report percentages, but be ready to acknowledge the poll is not scientific. That doesn't prevent it from illustrating your point.
Report cards or scorecards. A credible group can rate candidates, products, or institutions based on elements related to your message.
Indirect attention. Consider stories not directly related to your topic of interest. It's like collateral damage in war. You're looking for collateral publicity. You might share the story of an employee, volunteer or client who has an unusual hobby. A remarkable story about wildlife on your property can also make the news. Such indirect attention can carry implied messages.
Follow-ups. Having created one peg, follow-ups are a bonus. Release information on the success of your fundraiser, the results of your meeting or how the story ends for someone you profiled. Research has shown that audiences like to hear how stories turn out.
Note that the MAP process does not always move from your message idea to the peg. As you gain experience, recognizing peg opportunities provides the most frequent way to initiate the process. Many of the pegs above will present themselves in the normal course of events. Take advantage of such pegs by completing the rest of the formula. What theme can you address? What audience appeal can you surface? Solve the equation, and you have a story!
PEG: A group I was working with sought media attention for the visit of a national union vice-president attending their state convention. That’s an okay compound peg – an event coupled with a dignitary visit.
APPEAL: Here’s where the idea needed help. Neither the event nor the dignitary held any audience appeal. In brainstorming with the local representative, it came to light that the union recently did a survey on the attitudes of teen workers. In digging into the survey, I found some interesting results.
MESSAGE: The group didn’t have any particular message in mind as they sought coverage, but they instinctively understood that media coverage for the union was desirable. As it turned out, some nice messages about the union’s favorable impact on young workers also emerged.
The group could now structure a press release something along the lines of:
“Young Workers Finding Less Career Satisfaction”
Visiting Ourtown, Union VP says recent survey indicates a troubling trend.
We had a compound hook of event, visit and survey, and the final, full-blown story surfaced some strong messages that weren’t on the radar when the process began. You can see how much more effective this approach is than simply sending out a release saying the vice president would attend the annual conference.
Keep in mind that it's important to localize stories predicated on a national peg. Local media rarely pay attention to stories that lack local significance. Use language that makes the connection to your area: "State Reflects National Trend: 'We're no exception,' says Yourtown activist." You can also include regional statistics, local observations or local people to illustrate the issue.
On the other hand, if your peg is local, but your target audience is statewide, regional or even national, it then becomes helpful to broaden your story's appeal. For example, a story about local nurses voting to unionize could illustrate statewide staffing problems affecting patient care. Your local story becomes a microcosm that illustrates a regional situation. It just takes a little creativity to write your pitch to the regional media from that broader perspective.
Another important strategy is unbundling. Unbundling refers to breaking your story into smaller parts to be sent out separately. Unbundling is particularly important for stories with a cumbersome amount of information. If released all at once, most media outlets will cherry pick an element or two and ignore the rest. By increasing the number of stories, you expose more information. You also soften the blow should a big news event smother other news on a given day, costing you your chance of coverage. Each story also becomes shorter, making it more likely to find room in a newscast or newspaper.
As an example, let's say your group sponsors an annual concert fundraiser. One way to contact the media is to send out a large packet with everything they'll need: the schedule, a list of performers with glossy photos, ticket information, media credential information, details on interview opportunities with performers, parking and shuttle information, improvements from last year, and a profile of the nonprofit organizations supported by the concert. Very slick, but it will probably result in only one preview story before the actual event and include just a fraction of the information.
Here's how it might unbundle over several days, plus some post-concert follow-ups:
1. Initial announcement of schedule, performers and ticket info.
2. Improvements from last year: more toilets and new stage.
3. Profile of an interesting concert volunteer, employee or founder.
4. Offer advance phone interviews with performers. Include media credential information.
5. A heartwarming story of how the proceeds help humanity.
6. Reminders on rules, security, parking and shuttle busses.
7. Day of event coverage.
8. Post concert information on attendance and cleanup.
9. Thankful nonprofits receive big checks.
Smaller stories can also unbundle. Let's say you have media relations responsibilities for the Game and Fish Department and the hunting season approaches:
1. The hunting outlook based on wildlife population surveys and habitat studies.
2. Licensing requirements.
3. Safety reminders.
4. Rules and regulations, highlighting any changes.
5. Implications of the expected weather.
Another form of unbundling is to add story elements. Let's say your state organization will soon hold its annual meeting. An officer from the national organization will attend.
1. Announce the meeting, featuring an issue or element that enjoys audience appeal.
2. The national dignitary has an audience-oriented message to share at an event the day before the meeting. (Be aware that this could supplant coverage of the actual meeting in some cases.)
3. At the annual meeting, feature personal stories. Make people available for quick interviews.
4. After the meeting, you make an announcement or share a story generated by the meeting.
Surveys and studies can also benefit from unbundling, but it's tricky. On the positive side, you make it easier on the journalists by releasing the information in digestible amounts as opposed to a large document that can overwhelm a reporter on deadline. By dividing the results into themes, you also retain more control of the message. While some outlets will welcome such installments, and even read a teaser for the next day's story (a teaser you've been careful to supply), other outlets will consider it all one story and wish to address it all at once. Expect the most cooperation from broadcast, the least from print. One compromise is to offer the entire study upon request or make it available on a web page. Coverage of the entire subject by one media outlet might erode interest by others, but there will always be those happy to take the installments. Make sure to announce your process up front. For example, "All this week we'll be releasing highlights from the Data Center's survey on teen drinking."
To further help you understand the formula, let's consider the example of a nonprofit holding a fundraiser – selling gourmet chocolate at an open house. The initial peg (what makes the story news today) is the event. The basic message is "please come." But does this story have enough audience appeal to attract the media? Not too likely. In a case like this, you can complete the formula by adding that appeal. Here are a few possibilities:
1. Offer an interesting story about the people making the chocolate. (Profile)
2. Develop a deeper theme for the event that harmonizes with the organization's mission. (Direct effect, empathy, remarkable)
3. Feature a report on the health benefits of chocolate. (Remarkable, direct effect)
4. Invite a dignitary to emcee a chocolate trivia contest. (Remarkable, profile)
5. Produce an impressive sculpture in chocolate. (Remarkable, perhaps profile of sculptor or sculpted)
6. Share a story of someone helped with the money raised. (Profile, empathy, remarkable)
This is a nice exercise for members of your business, class, or non-profit organization. You can also do this as an individual. If you do this as part of a large gathering, you could break up into separate groups. Take thirty minutes to develop a story idea using the MAP formula. While we begin in this case with message, you can often start by identifying a good peg.
PICK A MESSAGE. Start by brainstorming a list of topics you would like publicized. Pick one for further consideration.
SELECT A PEG. Some pegs are obvious, such as news from your group, an event, a reaction, or a bold assertion. If no obvious peg presents itself, pick one of the creative pegs from the list above.
CONSIDER THE MEDIA APPEAL. What aspects of your message involve direct effect, empathy, profile and remarkability? Brainstorm ways to enhance the media appeal.
WRITE A HEADLINE. The headline will usually reference your peg. Try to capture the audience appeal. If you unbundled, you might have several headlines. Consider a subheading. (See "News release headlines" in chapter 3.)
If you broke into small groups, regroup to discuss not only your results, but also the experience of developing stories.
Shaping Your Story
Now that you've completed the MAP formula, it's time to craft your full message. Some, perhaps all, of this will comprise your news release. Some might be saved for a news conference. It might be all written out in your release, it might not – it depends in part on the volume of material and the nature of the topic. Regardless, the story is comprised of message points and supporting points. The message points define the central message. The supporting points are the examples, statistics, and/or testimony that bolster your message.
Start by distilling your message into short bullet points – the skeleton of your news. This helps you clarify and simplify the message. You might have as few as one, but three or four is typical. Keep the message points short. They will often parallel the final story structure. Here’s a typical pattern:
The first message point establishes the problem:
"A study says children doing poorly in school."
The second explains what's behind the problem:
"Large classrooms with over-worked teachers."