20 Tips to Help You Secure National News Coverage
The golden rule to securing press coverage is to read the nationals every day - in print and online.
Only by understanding these publications can you hope to communicate with them in a way that can secure you coverage.
But to help you along the way, here are our top 20 tips:
1. The benchmark is what NEWS EDITORS consider to be interesting, so remember to:
- Challenge or reinforce stereotypes: "Truckers have the best diets" or "Blondes have more fun"
- Make a lifestyle statement: Death of the fry-up / The bath is making a comeback / Tea overtakes coffee
- Create acronyms
- Identify syndromes
- Split people into types / groups
- Calculate lifetime spends
- Find "the average Brit"
2. Remember the product may be exciting to you but think: If you told one other person, would they pass the information on? How did your partner /friends respond when you told them about it?
3. Don't forget the detail. THE FIVE 'Ws' AND ONE 'H' Who / Why / What / When / Where / How. If a journalist writes about a story they will want to know everything.
4. Make sure your intro is not over two lines long, and, where possible, that the copy follows the ABCA rule:
A) Is the opening paragraph. It has to be short, sharp and punchy - "Britain is in the grip of web rage, according to new research."
B) You have created the momentum with a hard hitting opening paragraph; now crank it up another notch with a powerful second sentence - "More and more people are getting wound up over the length of time it takes to download material."
C) Third paragraph is the consequence opportunity - "Now one top web provider has appointed an online counsellor to sort out internet rows."
A) Fourth paragraph can be used to support the attention grabbing opener with a ball-busting quote or knock-out fact - "The cyber-rage phenomenon emerged from a survey of 3,000 computer-owning households by XXX"
5. When selling in over the phone, don't make it sound like the most exciting story in the world. It's not likely to even be the most exciting story that day - remember you are talking to people who deal with the most dramatic and incredible stories in the world on that day. Again: DON'T OVERSELL it.
6. Don't use exclamation marks - hacks see them as gimmicks used to make something funny or dramatic when it is neither.
7. Don't offer it exclusive unless you are dealing with a contact you know and trust.
8. Don't offer a story that makes claims in the intro that are not COMPLETELY backed up by stats. Do not bend stats too far.
9. Don't offer to make up a headline for them, or try to 'outpun' them.
10. NEVER put branding in an intro, except in the following cases: The client is a genuine household name / The story concerns a specific product / The story is a human interest piece focusing on a business individual
11. If you are worried that a story is not strong enough, it probably isn't. Don't put anything out if you think it is weak - if YOU think it is weak, imagine a newsdesk's reaction.
12. If you send out an over-branded or otherwise irrelevant release, you run two risks: The story will not make - meaning a wholesale waste of your time and resources and client disappointment. / The newspaper may remember the negative connotations NEXT time you try to pitch a story.
13. Agree on a snappy USP or a 'sound bite' which can be attached to your client. SWNS are known as "The biggest independent press agency in the UK" - who do you think made that up?!
14. When selling a story to a national newspaper or journalist - get to the point immediately. Remember that these people are working to strict deadlines.
15. Get to know newspaper's regional district reporters
16. Tune in to today's news agenda - will your story be eclipsed?
17. Use 'paper speak' - "is this one for you?" If it's not one for them, don't ask why
18. Send your story before newspaper morning conference (usually between 10.30am-11.00am)
19. Précis the story in 30 seconds or less
20. Ask in what format they would like to receive it
Written by Harriet Crosse
72Point Blog
72 Point are national news PR & survey specialists. Achieving daily print & online news exposure for the UK’s largest brands and PR agencies.
July 29th, 2010 - 11:00
Great post Harriet. It is remarkable the amount of times PRs make sloppy errors in press releases or annoy journalists by pitching stories that are not relevant. As you point out, it is imperative PRs read the nationals everyday to get an idea of the stories journalists are writing as well as stories that apply to clients.
At a time when PRs and marketing guru’s preach the benefits of social media and new technologies, it is also important not to neglect core PR tactics when generating coverage. In our blog http://blog.rostrumpr.com/ we talk about meeting journalists and building up positive relationships, which can definitely have a positive influence on your chances of getting coverage in the nationals. If you are reliable when sending material and go the extra mile to help them out, the chances of getting coverage significantly increase.