Alert the media

Shrinking newsroom staff is dramatically affecting the number of camera crews available from any given media outlet, and that means it's harder than ever to secure coverage for your event.

So how do you maximize your chances of getting air time? Well, start by using a media alert--not a release--to generate interest. Unlike releases, alerts leave a little to the imagination and instead provide only enough information to pique the media's interest. Since you don't give everything away, media are more likely to attend to make the story their own and secure their own footage. There are no guarantees, of course, but a professional, complete media alert is less likely to get lost in the shuffle since it commands a higher sense of urgency than a release.

How do you structure your media alert to provide enough--but not too much--information? Here are the key things to focus on:

- Include a media contact name, phone number, and email address. Be sure that this is someone who can answer calls promptly and who, for continuity, will be at the media event.

- Just say "Photo/B-Roll Opportunity" in the headline. That will send a signal to the assignment editor that this isn't just another news release.

- Create a subhead that sums up the event and what's in it for any media who attend

- Break up the rest of the alert into four sections:

• "Who": The people participating in your media event. Lead with those most likely to draw cameras (elected officials, celebrities, etc.). Don't assume the media will know who they are, however--include their title of a brief description of who they are
• "What": This is the meatiest section. Describe what's going to happen and why it's important (from a news value standpoint--NOT why it's important to your organization). Be complete but concise--not more than a paragraph or two.
• "When": Be specific--day, date, time (and if it's for national/regional media, include time zone).
• "Where": Again, be specific. Provide an address and room number/name. It doesn't help you if a camera gets to the building but misses the ribbon cutting because they didn't know where to find you.

Keep the whole thing to one page. The goal is to make it glanceable and to provide just enough information, but not too much. If you find yourself tempted to include a quote from a spokesperson, you're trying too hard.

Preparing a media alert doesn't preclude you from writing a release, too, but you'll only send the release after the event to accommodate cameras that couldn't get there. Use the two hand-in-hand, and you'll make the most of your chances to get coverage.

The single best way to improve your media relations skills

If you want better relationships with reporters and editors, listen to what Adweek’s Brian Morrissey had to say in this interview with The Bad Pitch Blog:

Recognize that media organizations are shrinking while PR is growing. The ratio of PR people to reporters is probably like 75:1....

What it means for PR people is your job is harder. The best PR people I know simply connect me with people that can help me. They know what I cover, what I don’t and how their clients do and do not fit. That means a lot more work before the email and the call. It also means knowing when to get out of the way.

The goal is to be viewed as a resource, not a PR person. And the first step is knowing the difference between those two designations.

Media are people, too

Media relations isn't always rocket science, despite a lot of PR people's best efforts to make it much more difficult than it really is. One example: things usually go better when you treat the media like you would want to be treated. Think that goes without saying? Well, someone forgot to tell the person behind this e-mail, cited on The Bad Pitch Blog:

Pretty tight deadline, you should give more notice next time. As my attached bio details, I could certainly speak to the issues. I'm free from 1:30 PM to 2 PM, PST, if that works.

I'll leave it to Bad Pitch to sum this one up:

Thanks for that window Mr. Busy. God complex. Table of one! Might we touch your robe so that we might be healed? What’s the moral of the story? Don’t be a jerk.

Tim Goeglein, Nancy Nall, and the speed of 21st century communication

The Tim Goeglein plagiarism story broke just 12 hours ago, and it's already moved from humble blog post to national news sensation. It's a great example of the speed at which communication moves today, with lessons for bloggers, writers and anyone else who's interested in old or new media.

I've been out of town most of the day, yet I was able to follow it pretty closely thanks to RSS feeds, wireless access, a Blackberry, FortWayne.com, Panera Bread, and e-mails from friends. A timeline of what I heard when:

- I check Google Reader at about 7:00 a.m. Just another day in the blogosphere, it seems.

- "Copycat" first appears on nancynall.com at 7:38 a.m.

- I break for lunch about 12:30. I'm sitting in a Panera Bread in Kokomo (consistently great wireless internet access, by the way), when I read this Fort Wayne Observed post.

- Which leads me to this Journal Gazette story.

- Which leads me to this News-Sentinel story.

- A friend e-mails me some thoughts at 1:30 p.m., helping shape my understanding of what's going on

- I disappear into meetings all afternoon, but when I get home another friend has e-mailed me this AP story

- As of 8:00 p.m., there are 242 comments to Nall's "Copycat" post

Let's make one thing clear: Nancy Nall didn't bring down Tim Goeglein. Tim Goeglein brought down Tim Goeglein. But still, this is pretty amazing stuff. A few takeaways:

- Blogs matter. They matter a lot.

- Don't plagiarize. It's bad and you can get fired.

- The Internet is your permanent record, and it's everyone else's permanent record, too. Blatant plagiarism in 2008, then, is pretty stupid. (In fact, we all should be aware of the Internet's lengthy memory, as The Marketing Technology Blog aptly pointed out on Monday.)

- Blogs matter. They matter a lot.

- Great blogs combine the best of old media--fact checking, good judgment about what makes a story a story, and good writing--with the best of new media--immediacy and interactivity. Nall has an advantage in being a journalist, but this is really a case of collaboration. Nall posted about one instance of Goeglein's plagiarism, then her commenters found others. It's unclear whether he would have been compelled to resign if it only happened once, but being revealed as a serial plagiarizer--with 20 offending columns identified so far--sure didn't help him.

- News has always traveled fast, but today the citizen journalist can break a national news story in a second.

- And if you're the subject of this news, your first response matters. Goeglein seemed resigned (pun intentional) to the worst from the start.

- Hell hath no fury like a blogger scorned. Nall's criticism of Goeglein goes back quite a bit, and it seems likely that she wouldn't have been as quick to call him out if he was a friend. This probably would have caught up with Goeglein eventually, but Nall and her commenters/collaborators brought it to a quick, certain conclusion.

- Newspapers can still be incredibly relevant when they commit to covering a story as it happens. Make no mistake about it, this was Nall's baby. But the local papers did a good job of becoming part of the conversation. (The Sentinel, however, loses a few points for refusing to acknowledge Nall's former employment with the paper in their early coverage. They had a chance to include an interesting angle, and they chose not to. Hard to say why, but they probably felt outshined. And while they should have, they made things even worse by ignoring the obvious.)

- Blogs matter. They matter a lot.

Today, Nancy Nall demonstrated the true power of new media, while also defending the integrity of old media. In doing so, she showed how media are changing, and how quickly communication can move when you have a good story to tell.

What reporters REALLY say when you're not around

A friend alerted me to a new site that provides an unvarnished view of journalists' pet peeves: AngryJournalist.com. It's a compilation of everything from the frustrations reporters are feeling to the office politics of the newsroom. The site also serves a very practical purpose, giving PR people good examples of what NOT to do--like this, for example:

Why are you angry today? PR people who don’t do their research. They insist on wasting my time to promote their pathetic story which if they knew ANYTHING about our paper would know that we’re not interested at all. As well as asking if I would like to meet with a representative from their organisation when they visit a town four hours away from me.

If you're willing to learn, the angry journalist's pain can be your gain. Just be sure to wear your thickest skin to the party.

Hat tip: The Bad Pitch Blog

Photo: alex-s on Flickr