How to get into the news

A few days ago, we provided some comments for a feature on the PR Moment website, looking at the challenges of getting customers covered by the media in today’s news environment.

Some of our advice was published in the piece, which is available here. Here is everything we contributed:

There are more PR people than ever fighting for the attention of fewer journalists today, but it isn’t any harder to get good stories into the news than it was ten or even 20 years ago.

The fundamentals of what makes ‘news’ remain the same, and if you understand your target media, their particular news cycles, and the audiences they serve, a good story still stands every chance of getting covered.

Journalists are deluged in information online and receive hundreds of emails every day, so the basics of presenting potential news to them have become more critical than ever.

Press releases must be written in plain English and have short snappy headlines. You must be able to summarise the story in the space it takes to fill a Tweet or an email preview screen. Good pictures help, particularly when working with trade and online media.

Timing can be crucial. It is more difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to attract the attention of major news outlets, so have conversations about potential exclusives early. It can also be worth holding a story until there is an opportunity to piggyback on a more prominent related news item.