effective media relations

Effective Media Relations

Strategies and tips for converting ideas into positive print and

broadcast coverage

PA Meeting-Media Presentation 2

Media Fundamentals

• Know your editor, agenda and position– Editorial assistant if one exists– Editors’ preferred method and time for

communication• Know the editorial calendar• Know the editorial deadlines and publish

cycles• Know when to include radio and television


Best Process: Editorial Contact

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Best Practice: Editorial Calendar

Tips: Manage your editorial calendar daily •Tracking by: 1) idea, 2) status, 3) outcome and 4) month•Trends by interest, timeframes and editorial flexibility

PA Meeting-Media Presentation

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Story Generation

• Local profiles– Group leaders (SP identified 1 in bishopric)

• profiles– Organization happenings

• Schools, profit, non-profit– Individual

• Business owners, entrepreneurs, bloggers• Trends blending local and national interest

• Keep in front of the editor with other stories– Mix in your own agenda/stories and ideas


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Ideas by Category

Tips: Understand and manage when stories usually appear•Scouts are on-going, great photo opps, short on length•Travel: tend to be in the spring, photos and paragraphs only•Profiles: tend to be editorial-based, longer (750-1,000 words)


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Three Case Studies• Profiles– Holiday profiles: Valentine’s Day

• Burns: 60th Anniversary, photos• Outcome: first profile in Bellevue Reporter ever, first

relationship with BR editor and lead reporter• Reporter was ‘touched’ by the couple• Opened the door for 2nd profile

– Leadership Profile• Pres. Johnson, same reporter• First major profile of a local leader• Reporter to become editor at Redmond Paper

Tips: Seek profiles around natural holidays and events:•Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day and Labor Day•Human interest, overcoming odds, adversity, love and hope all go over great •Start at least 6 months in advance, contacting leads for ideas


Major Stories• Trek ’09– Pitched 2 largest publications with a new idea

(embed a reporter). Editor didn’t have staffing, so offered to write the article, with a travel log (as though a reporter was embedded)• Sub-pitch included statistics on pioneers, interest in

ancestry and geneology– Outcome: two major profiles on Trek, published

w/out edits and photosTips: Draw upon larger social, economic or trends in the area•Identify, select and pitch, the publication with the broadest reach and most flexibility


Short Snippets• Most items submitted are not ‘coverage-worthy’• Calendar events are up to the calendar editor• Photographs are more important than the content• Example: Musical-

– After the event, mostly pictures, submitted a short article but it got cut in favor of photo

– Must be in the area code of the event (not necessarily where the performers live, unless a side bar profile)

Tips: Photos are often the deciding factor in a story •Have a org photographer at the ready to take photos•Work with photographer on pre, during and post event shots•Provide editors with 3-5 small thumbnails and a choice