Ever dream of seeing your story in the news? Getting media coverage might seem difficult, but it's achievable with the right approach. This guide provides actionable tips for how to get a story on the news.
How to Get a Story on the News: Crafting a Compelling Narrative
Journalists receive numerous pitches daily. Crafting a compelling narrative, rather than just stating facts, makes your story stand out.
Understanding the News Landscape
The news landscape is constantly changing. Newsroom employment has declined, yet local news outlets maintain high trust within local communities. This makes local media an ideal starting point for sharing news stories.
Think about what you're pitching and target accordingly for successful news coverage. You can even form beneficial relationships with reporters and editors to learn how to get a story on the news. Crafting compelling news stories improves the chance of success. It’s important to avoid bad news and present good news that’s interesting and educational to viewers, listeners and readers.
Identifying Your Newsworthy Angle
Not all stories are newsworthy. Focus on making your story timely and relevant to a target audience.
Does it have a human interest element? Does it relate to current events? Understanding this helps get your story picked up. Think about your story angle and if the events attract local coverage. If it’s breaking news, it will be easier to get your story picked up. This includes grand openings and other newsworthy events.
Building Relationships with Journalists: Pitch Perfect
Build relationships with journalists before you need coverage. Engaging with individual reporters on social media, especially Twitter, helps you understand their interests. This builds rapport, helping you understand how to best approach them.
Crafting the Perfect Pitch
Keep your pitch concise and respect journalists' time. Personalize it, highlight the newsworthy angle, and offer exclusives when possible.
An eye-catching subject line is crucial, especially for mobile users. Keep it brief. Tools like SubjectLine can help analyze and optimize subject lines.
Following Up (Without Being Annoying)
A polite follow-up email is acceptable if you don't hear back initially. However, no reply usually means no. Repeated follow-ups can be counterproductive.
How to Get a Story on the News: Crafting the Right Distribution Plan
A good pitch is only half the battle. Distributing your story strategically maximizes its reach. Consider if you want local or national coverage. Having the correct media contact information or having a contact list of journalists from different media outlets is important.
Targeting Local vs. National Media
For a local news story, target local publications. National stories may require newswire services (Reuters, AP, AFP).
Tailor your distribution plan for the best results. Local media prefers direct contact with specific journalists and established media contacts.
Utilizing Newswire Services and Press Release Distribution
Services like EIN Presswire broaden your story's distribution, especially when short on time. Clear messaging is essential.
Mastering Social Media for News Outreach
Use social media channels and other media channels to your advantage. Share your story using relevant hashtags and tagging reporters (respectfully).
Engaging content and multimedia increase visibility. Share any key components of your brand's story on your own social media channels as well as in your pitch.
Tips for Writing Effective Press Materials
Well-written materials are crucial for media outreach success. This also includes your story's lead paragraph and including direct quotes.
Key Elements of a Press Release
A good press release needs a compelling headline, a concise summary, a detailed body, information about your organization, and your contact info. Including quotes in your news release will make your story more engaging for the reader and may make the story you’re pitching easier for them to relate to.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Headline | Strong, concise, action verbs |
| Summary | Brief overview of the main points (who, what, when, where, why). The inclusion of your main points within the lead paragraph can be highly effective. |
| Body | Detailed information, include quotes, supporting evidence. Including direct quotes and talking points within the body of your news release or pitch will increase the chance that media will include these direct quotes within the body of the article as well. Be sure to add quotes on your key points or any interesting bullet point information that people would be likely to share. |
| Boilerplate | About your organization |
| Contact Info | How to reach you via email and include other phone numbers for follow-up |
Crafting Attention-Grabbing Headlines
Headlines are important. Aim for a concise headline with strong action verbs. This increases clickthrough rates.
Writing Clear, Concise, and Compelling Copy
Avoid jargon and wordy phrasing. Prioritize clear and concise language. Use a tool like Grammarly for error-free writing.
Finding and Using Media Contact Information
Delivering your story to the right people is key. Having the appropriate email pitch or media contacts local to the story you’re pitching is a good place to start.
Using Online Tools and Resources
Tools like SignalHire (a Chrome extension ) helps find email addresses and include email addresses on LinkedIn and Twitter.
It’s worth mentioning SignalHire helps you find contacts. A spreadsheet media list template keeps your contacts organized.
Don’t send a pitch to the general email for media relations, if the publication doesn’t work like that. It’s always better to reach out to contacts local to the region you are targeting within a specific publication and contact specific journalists rather than their general email. It’s always advisable to create a Signal contact list that contains contact information such as phone numbers and email address for future stories.
Conclusion
Getting your story on the news takes persistence. Build relationships with journalists, target the right news outlets, and write engaging content. Make sure there are no grammatical errors in the pitch and keep the pitch short. Understanding how to get a story on the news positions you as an authority. A worthwhile investment in getting a story on the news is creating a well-crafted pitch to print publications.
It's time to start creating a plan. This involves carefully considering what to pitch and crafting an appropriate email pitch that you will eventually send. While this does take time, this will allow you to create a press release or pitch to get your story on the news that has a greater impact. These actions increase the chances of sales through earned media coverage and boost brand awareness through compelling news that people read. Be sure to check that if a reporter doesn’t reply, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything bad. Just prepare the story angle of the story you’re hoping to tell the media, and prepare a concise, easy-to-digest summary that doesn't waste journalists time.
