For many news organizations the hardest job is sorting through mountains of news announcements and information that floods their inboxes on a daily basis and finding the real stories.
When it comes to business news, particularly IT business news, there is also a lot of jargon, acronyms and marketing spin to plough through. For example, not everyone is a market leader, but pretty much everyone claims to be in their press materials.
The key to catching a journalist’s attention is making sure your company stands out from the crowd and ensuring you have a decent story to tell. So how should you pitch to journalists, and what sort of stories are editors actually looking for?
Speaking at a CompTIA Community – UK & Ireland regional group meeting, PR expert Carl Jones shared some tips about how to get noticed in the media.
Identify What News Is
First, MSPs and other tech companies should understand what news is: Something that gets people talking or provokes a reaction. And that is true at both the local and national level.
“If you go down the pub, someone will be talking about it. That is news. Things that are topical, surprising, original, stories about people. News organizations deliver what people want to read,” he said.
Unfortunately, many times something that you as a company may think is great news, is really not that interesting to the media. Think about the human factor of any news story—people are far more interesting than a company, so talk about the people behind the story. This could be new initiatives, milestones or a best financial performance.
Study What the Press Wants
Keep your media contacts book up to date and know their writing style and audience. “Know who is on your industry media scene,” Jones said. “Do you know the editors and teams of correspondents on your trade titles and local newspapers?
He also stressed the importance of mirroring their style when sending out news announcements and make sure you know your unique selling point.
“The best stories start with the most important thing in the first paragraph,” he said. “It is all about short, sharp, crisp sentences to keep things moving. If you are toiling for days over a detailed story and are on your fifth page of single-spaced A4, you are wasting your time for nothing,” he said.
It’s been said that readers only read on average the first 26 words of any story. On average a radio/TV news item is 70 words, a radio/TV feature is 450 words and a lead story in a newspaper or magazine is 350 words.
Don’t Assume Your Story Isn’t Valuable
Quirky news stories are often snapped up by the media, if only for some light relief from all the heavy news out there. Jones cited an example of a company he worked with that made small ceramic figurines. It won a deal to export koala bear figurines to an Australian company. However, because the contract was a small one, the managing director thought it was not newsworthy and was reluctant to talk about it.
After being persuaded to run with the story, it not only made the local newspaper, but thanks to syndication, also made a major national newspaper, was an ‘And Finally’ feature on News at 10, and eventually made the Sydney Morning Herald.
“If you look at a story from a monetary point of view in terms of value to your business, it doesn’t always make it a story,” Jones said. “Think about what is going on in the world, if you have any kind of connection to events, for example the Olympics, or well-known celebrities or venues, contact the local media and let them know.”
Think About the ‘W Formation’
The W Formation is something taught to every journalist at journalism school, Jones said. It stands for ‘Who, What, Why, When and Where’ and this is the basis to every news article. You must address all of these points when creating material aimed at the press.
“Don’t assume people know anything about you, in fact assume the journalist knows nothing about your business,” Jones warned, stressing the importance of explaining who you are, what you are doing, why you are doing it, when you are doing it and where you are doing it. Try and get third parties involved as well—get them to back up what you are saying.
Don’t Try to Control the Media
The final point would be not to try and manipulate the media, mainly by playing one title or journalist off against another or favoring one publication or organization over another through embargoes.
Journalists will see through this behavior and it will come back to bite you. Make connections with journalists and treat them fairly, and inevitably they will respond in kind. Jones said being honest with journalists will also stand you in good stead. “Never say anything you can’t prove,” he concluded.
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