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Guest post by: Wendy McWilliams Become an Author

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If you don't know, do some research to find out. For example, if you are a boutique winemaker wanting to launch your new vintage, your customers would probably read the weekly food and drink lift-outs and columns in the metro dailies and weekend papers/magazines along with online web pages such as Top Drop. Then there are the numerous glossy magazines and influential freelance writers and bloggers who specialise in the wine industry.

The editors, journalists and self publishers who write news stories and feature articles on any particular subject are looking for material to write about. They can't possibly source every story line themselves; that's where the PR professional can help.

Whether in-house or outsourced, the PR person needs to find an angle to their news, which will resonate with the journalist they are trying to sell (pitch) their story to.

Just sending them a press release announcing its new vintage is now available, won't generate much attention. That is, unless it is Penfolds Grange or something similar, of course!

You need to find a unique aspect to the story: perhaps the wine comes from vineyards that were burnt in the Black Saturday bush fires on 7 February 2009; perhaps the winemaker is the youngest/oldest in the country; or perhaps it has won a significant award. Look hard and try and find a story around the 'news', ideally one with a human interest flavour.

Having good photographs is essential, not just a straight product shot of the bottle of wine, but tie the photo into the person or story that supports the 'news' item.

With a new product such as wine, taste is obviously an important criteria. Therefore, samples and tasting notes should be provided to the journalist. Perhaps you could arrange for them to taste the wine at a well known restaurant with matching food?

A final suggestion. Make sure you read and are familiar with the article, column or website of the media you are targeting. You need to know what their interests are, any topical issues they are following and their style.

Note: this article was written from an Australian perspective, but the key messages are applicable worldwide.

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