Publicity Guide

Dealing with the Press - Part 1

Any newspaper worth its cover price should be tempted into covering this event for you, if given even a few day's notice. The sole purpose of the Cyberman is to create an unusual photograph.

And, to back up your release, you can phone them in advance and ask if they intend to cover the event by sending a photographer/reporter?

If they simply do not have the staff to spare, or bigger/better news events draw them away on the day, why not send a press release and professionally-taken photograph?

Where to send your information

There may be many local daily and weekly newspapers covering your patch.

Find out who and where they are, and include them ALL on your press release distribution list.

Also, depending on the story or photograph you have to offer, would local radio or even TV stations be interested?

More and more newspapers are quite willing to use supplied, provided they are of sufficient (and this usually means professional) quality.

A local, professional photographer can usually be found very quickly to cover an event for you. It will cost you less than you think, and his or her efforts will pay dividends in terms of the publicity you achieve.

Publicity can do lots of things for your business. It can recognise achievement or success. It promotes your business. It raises your profile and often leads to many useful follow-ups.

Best of all, it's very good Public Relations.

How the Press operate/What they are looking for.

Newsrooms, by their very nature, are busy places.

Reporters and photographers are often running around like proverbial "headless chickens" to meet their hourly, daily or weekly deadlines.

The most important thing is to catch their attention with your piece of news, but don't waste their time. Often it's possible to build up a useful one-to-one relationship with a particular reporter and afterwards ask for him or her by name whenever you have a story to tell.

But many local newspapers have a large turnround in staff, so don't be surprised if relationships like these may not last more than a year or two before you have to start again with someone else.

If you don't know anyone at your local newspaper, just ask for the newsdesk or news editor as a starting point.

After that, provided that what you have to say sounds interesting, you'll be put through to a reporter to take full details over the phone. Then it should all happen automatically.

Generally even in this age of easy emails it is best not to ask to see the reporter's version of your story before it's printed. Remember, this is not paid-for material. It is best to simply take your chance and trust in the reporter's own ability to get it right!

And when he/she does a good job on your story - deal with that person again next time instead of going through the newsdesk. That's the start of your relationship-building, and you now have a 'contact'.

In this remarkable day and age, try to find out if your newspaper contact has an e-mail address, and you can keep in touch that way too!

Next > News Part 2 - The key to a well presented Press Release...