getting the-press-attention jeff gauger convergesouth2012
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ConvergeSouth2012TRANSCRIPT
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