When remarkable events occur, the knee-jerk reaction for a lot of communicators (and their bosses) is to quickly craft and distribute a press release. Journalists are routinely bombarded with press releases because public-relations professionals outnumber journalists four to one.
Everyone believes his or her issue will be the one that breaks through the noise and gets covered, but even the most noteworthy issues often go unnoticed or underreported. Here are five things you can do to increase the odds that your press releases will be read and your story will receive the media spotlight it deserves:
Pick the right news hook or angle. This is important when trying to break through the clutter. Think about current events and lead with a compelling news hook.
For instance, on December 2, 2017, the Senate passed a party-line vote on the Republican tax bill. If your organization wanted to weigh in on the bill and receive media coverage of your perspective, your organization would have to offer something more substantive than its opinion on the matter.
Your press release should indicate the number of people the measure would affect and what impact the bill would have on them. If your organization planned to hold a protest to oppose the bill’s passage, you should explain how many people you expected to participate, the location and time of the gathering, and its desired outcome.
To capture the interest of reporters and increase the likelihood of coverage, decide which media outlets are most likely to be interested. Before contacting reporters, make sure you address questions such as the following in your pitch:
- Why is this story important now?
- What makes the story or angle unique?
- Why should anyone care?
- Is this story the first of its kind?
- Is the event or development the largest or most comprehensive of its kind?
Pitch the right person. No matter how timely or unique your pitch, it will be pointless if misdirected. If you’re seeking coverage on a health-related story, make sure you direct your pitch to reporters who regularly cover health care.
If you’re seeking coverage on a health topic currently in the news cycle, you’ll want to reach out to daily publications rather than magazines that only go to press once a month. If you’re seeking to influence a publication’s editorial board, be sure to reach out to the editorial-page editor rather than a general-assignment editor. Pitching to the right person requires due diligence. For example, just because you’ve worked with a certain reporter in the past doesn’t mean that person still holds the same job.
Be timely. For the sake of example, let’s return to the Republican tax bill passed on December 2. If you were interested in the timeliest response to weighing in on the bill’s impact, you would have needed to issue a statement immediately before or after the bill passed.
Because the bill passed just before 2 a.m. on a Saturday morning, you would have had to send a release in the middle of the night. Instead of expecting reporters to check their emails at that time, you would be more effective in getting your message across via social media by sharing a snapshot of the release, taken by phone. Tweeting a photo of the press statement or a link to it to journalists and media outlets ensures that they see it, especially after normal working hours.
Pitch both the reporter and the editor. When seeking coverage for a novel event or initiative, consider pitching both the reporter and the editor. Reporters generally need an editor’s sign-off for news stories, so it may be best to pitch your story to both of them. You can do this though phone calls and pitch notes to those you want to reach.
By engaging an editor as well as a reporter, you are taking some of the burden off of a reporter who has to make the case that your issue is worth covering. Bear in mind, however, that all newsrooms are different, and this approach may be more suitable for larger media outlets. You may have to adapt your strategies for different outlets.
If you aren’t sure which editors handle coverage of your issue, check the “Contact Us” or Editorial sections of that media outlet’s website.
Scrap the press-release approach. Sharing information through means other than a press release goes against conventional practice. Just because you don’t send a press release doesn’t mean you can’t find creative ways to convey timely issues of importance to the media. Effective alternatives include developing and distributing a video, creating memes for social media, crafting and sharing a blog post with reporters via social media, and developing an opinion essay for a local or national paper.
Jennifer R. Farmer is the author of “Extraordinary PR, Ordinary Budget: A Strategy Guide” and managing director for communications of PICO National Network.