Getting the …… Attention

Press’

The one-slide secret to working with the press

• Understanding commercial media • Relationships • Credibility • Making the right pitch

Commercial Media = Exposure

Buy it Control • Content • Timing • Placement

Get it free Say . . . “Goodbye control”

Reporter’s Job

Sales

Editor’s Job

Your Job

Sales

Compromise • Time • Talent • Space

Relationships

• Making connections first • Meet reporters, editors • Figure out who covers what • Figure out who makes decisions

Your credibility • Offer story tips even when you have

nothing to gain • Be honest . . . don’t oversell • Be realistic • Understand the difference between

ads and editorial content

Your credibility, V. 2.0

Stuff happens

When it does

Understanding media • They’re busy. Get to the point • They’re motivated by what’s new, different,

bigger, broken, changed, unusual • They prize their credibility • They want stories with the broadest possible

appeal • They want real-people examples • With non-profits, they want to share the

wealth

Make the right pitch

• Have a narrow purpose • Be realistic • Unless you’re buying ads, don’t

promise your boss or board what the media will deliver

Make the right pitch

• Tell them early • Make it easy • Frame your idea for wide • Think visually • How can you help?

Bonus tip Suggest

a Partnership

An editor’s Peeves

• Last-minute Minnies • NQR Ninnies

• Molly Moochers • Entitlement Eddy’s

• Negative News Nancy’s

Now you be the editor An exercise

• 10 minutes • 10 stories • Expect interruptions

Now you be the editor An exercise

Pick . . . – Four stories for page field

• 1 story for news lead • 1 story for main display • No more than one with secondary art • Four stories for page field

– One story with art for sky box – One story to lead left rail

Your 10 stories • Non-profit with record of successful service celebrates 50th

anniversary. 15 inches. w/ photos. • Greensboro City Council debates changes to city recycling

program. No decision made. Meeting highly contentious. 18 inches. No visuals.

• Popular long-time, former high school football coach dies in nursing home. 12 inches. w/ file photos.

• Weather expected to turn colder overnight, first frost possible. 7 inches. w/ chart.

• Convenience store robbery in High Point. No suspects. 5 inches. No visuals.

• Local manufacturer announces it will add 150 jobs paying $40K over next three years. 16 inches. w/ locator map.

• Trial preview story in year-old homicide case. 10 inches. w/ file mug shot of defendant.

• Service club announces it is accepting applications for scholarship program it sponsors. 4 inches. No visuals.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 2.4%. w/ chart. • Car, school bus collide, killing car driver and injuring nine

children. 22 inches. w/ photos.

Questions