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News Angles that Attract Media Attention

Guest post by: Jennifer Wezensky

Article Overview: One of the biggest challenges that new businesses face is standing out from the crowd. Business owners often don't know how to attract media attention because they don't know what makes news. This applies to print, online and broadcast media.

News Angles that Attract Media Attention

If you want to be in the news, you have to be newsworthy. To be newsworthy, you have to be news knowledgeable. You have to know what's going on in your field, and your field is more than the product you make or the service you provide.

If you make a product, you're part of an industry. But your field can also include issues surrounding small business. Those issues have to includes local, state and federal politics. You're part of a geographic community. How do your operations affect that community, and how do community actions impact you? Your business makes you a consumer of advertising, shipping, web design and Internet social media, and as such, eligible to comment on them to the news media.

Anyone who runs a business or non-profit organization is in a position to be part of the news in many fields. When you pitch a press release or story, consider the impact the story has in those fields.

How does it affect the consumer?

When an editor receives a press release or story angle, the first question is what value is it to the reader or viewer. You have to answer that question in your pitch. Does your product fill a need for the consumer? Does it improve a person's lifestyle? What problem does your service solve or at least alleviate? Solving a problem or filling a need is the basic pitch for announcing new product releases, or the offering of new services. Such a pitch holds a direct relation to what you do.

But maybe you have a story idea that impacts your business, but isn't based on your product filling a need. Then the question is does the impact you feel, for good or bad, also impact other businesses or consumers, and is the impact large enough to have news value? Is it an issue that many may not be aware of yet, but the consequences could be significant and even drastic?

Is there a particular human interest in the story? In that case, the impact isn't an issue, but the story itself. Would the story make a good read? Does it have good visuals?

When you pitch a story angle, you have to put yourself outside of your operations and ask, "Why would I want to read this story?" If the only answer you come up with is that it helps your business, you don't really have a story to pitch.

Go beyond the obvious

Let's say you release a product that truly fills a need. A press release on that product could get you a write up on the business pages. But who's your supplier? Is your product not only raising employment in your plant, but creating jobs with a local supplier? That raises the impact of the story from a product release notice to a story on the local economy.

Think of the interrelation your operations have with your community. Wherever your business or organization has an impact that benefits the community, it's a potential story. It can be attractive to the news media if it's not a "single-source" story. Maybe an increase in employment at your business is helping nearby stores and restaurants. Pitch that idea, and suggest a few owners of those stores and restaurants as additional sources. Mostly likely, those owners will be the lead, but the story is still about your business helping the community.

Give awards

Employee of the month doesn't usually count, here. But awards you give beyond your organization can be noteworthy and newsworthy. An award for community service by definition is about someone who benefits the community, and your willingness to publicly recognize the service provided. The lead, again, is about someone else, but your organization gets credit for bringing the story to the public.

Awards can be closely related to what you do, such as an arts organization publicizing an Artist of the Year, or not related at all to your core business but part of your mission to be a solid community neighbor.

Be an expert

It's actually not that hard to be an expert in your field. If you're running an organization or own a small business, you already bring knowledge, experience and professional savvy to your position. Increase your credibility by becoming active in a trade association appropriate to your operations. Make noise. Become noticed by others in your field. This can give you the opportunity to gain publicity beyond local media.

The owner of a Michigan trade exchange that facilitated barter transactions between businesses became very active in a national association of trade exchanges, soon being elected to its board and even named president of the board for a period of time. When the economy took a downturn, national news media began doing stories on the rising practice of a barter economy. When they looked for an expert, they quickly found this owner of a local trade exchange. His views on barter and trade exchanges have appeared in the Investor's Business Daily and Forbes online, and he was approached to write a book on the subject, published in late 2009.

You can also get noticed by participating in blogs and discussion groups. Submitting a comment to any blog posting is fairly easy. If you stick to the issues raised and not use it as an opportunity for a flagrant sales pitch, you'll earn respect, and your name and links to your website may start popping up elsewhere. Writing your own blog could also greatly raise your visibility, but it takes work to keep it up through regular postings. Be prepared for that if you start one.

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Article Tags: business owners, media attention, media expert, new businesses, news releases, public relations



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