Write News Proposals, Not Press Releases

Written by Rusty Cawley


There are only two times to write a news release.

The first is when your story is so big that your only real problem is finding a room large enough to hold allrepparttar reporters who want to attend your press conference.

The other is when your news is so small that it warrants onlyrepparttar 121042 briefest mention.

The first instance is rare and is generally reserved for large-cap public companies. Microsoft announces that Bill Gates is stepping down as CEO. Coca-Cola announces a settlement in a yearlong racial discrimination suit. Ford announces it is recalling thousands of Explorers to replace their Firestone tires. These are examples of when a press release isrepparttar 121043 right choice.

The second instance is fairly common and is found in organizations of all kinds: public, private, governmental and not-for-profit. Your organization names a new vice president.

Your company announces its second-quarter profits. Such news is condensed into a release and distributed to local newspapers and trade magazines, usually with solid results.

But all too often a CEO expectsrepparttar 121044 mainstream media andrepparttar 121045 trade press to jump on a story that simply has no obvious news value.

A prominent restaurant chain opens its second location in a major city. The first location got great coverage;repparttar 121046 second should get even more, right?

Wrong.

There’s no obvious news value to a second location. Send that as a press release torepparttar 121047 media, and your story will line garbage cans throughout your town.

The PR Rainmaker Always Has a Plan B

Written by Rusty Cawley


PR Rainmakers know they can do everything right, and still fail to make news.

It is a fact of life. Accept it now.

All news is affected by whatever else happened that day. All news is relative.

Newspapers have only so many columns to fill. The TV news has only so many minutes to devote. Even Web sites have only so many slots to fill with news ofrepparttar day.

Even on a slow news day, more copy is thrown away than is ever used. More emails are deleted than followed. More faxes are trashed than considered.

There is also a hierarchy to news, especially inrepparttar 121041 mainstream media. Breaking news will supplant soft news, such as features and analyses. News of broad interest will supplant news of specific interest; for example, a tornado that wipes out your downtown area will likely push a suburban school board meeting torepparttar 121042 back pages, if not out of newspaper entirely.

You can arrangerepparttar 121043 most visual, most intriguing media event possible. But if City Hall is burning down atrepparttar 121044 same time as your event, then that is whererepparttar 121045 news cameras are going to go. The news demands it.

We all know what happened on Sept. 11, 2001: Two passenger jets slammed intorepparttar 121046 World Trade Center, while a third crashed intorepparttar 121047 Pentagon and a fourth was forced torepparttar 121048 ground in a Pennsylvania field.

Just think how many important and interesting news events were chased out ofrepparttar 121049 news media on Sept. 11 and duringrepparttar 121050 weeks that followed – not to mention all ofrepparttar 121051 soft news features and media events that were canceled.

So how do PR Rainmakers handle this reality? By leaving nothing to chance.

In others words: Always have a Plan B.

Keeprepparttar 121052 time window for your media event as open as long as is reasonably possible. If you arrange for a media event to last only one hour, then you severely limitrepparttar 121053 media’s ability to attend. You may forcerepparttar 121054 media to choose between your event and breaking news. If you force that choice, you will lose. Keeprepparttar 121055 window open for at least three hours. Ifrepparttar 121056 participants (such asrepparttar 121057 CEO), balk at this idea, ask them bluntly: “How badly do you want to be inrepparttar 121058 news?” The media are in control of whether you get coverage, not you.

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