A Few Tricks to a Newsworthy Story

 

Hand the latest and greatest novel to a toddler and what do you think will happen? The novel has no pictures -- just page after page of words in small type. You know that kid's going to either toss the book or start having fun by tearing it to bits. And, that's pretty much what an editor's going to do with your press release if it's not newsworthy. But what makes a story newsworthy?

 

Something Unique

If you're sending in stories about something that happens over and over again -- perhaps something as yawn-worthy as another liquidation sale -- you'll probably suffer from a saying I've heard: "First time is funny, second time is silly, third time is a spanking."

 

You can avoid that fate, though, by coming up with different angles on the same information.

 

Say the Department of Natural Resources is holding a program to help prevent river pollution. You could either hold a sale at that time, or you could hold a newsworthy sale. Your bookstore might decide to sell everything that's related to river pollution at cost. It's still a sale to get people in the door, and you can still make money selling other items. But by tying your sale to this event, you could get some media coverage to help boost sales.

 

Significance

Your story's just not that unique? Don't panic, you can still manage to get the media's attention.

 

For one thing, remember that the number of people affected by your story can matter too. A new music company holding a contest to pick its first "client" destined for stardom can hold meaning to every musician out there. That makes it much more significant than a do-it-yourself pottery shop offering a free chunk of clay to the first five customers that arrive at its grand opening.  So, consider who you're really impacting and you can rate the value of your news honestly.

 

Stories from places or subjects that we have a particular bond with often hold more significance as well. Suppose many in your community have lost their lives due to SARS. If you're sending in an article about how your company's newest vaccine is proven through independent tests to prevent the spread of SARS, it would be a significant story particularly with its ties to the local community.

 

Another kind of significance is celebrity news. Celebrities get media just because people are curious about anyone famous. So a story about a pop star opening a restaurant will likely get more coverage than one about a price discount at your little candy shop. But, this doesn't mean that you won't get into the news. It just means that you've got to work harder to make your story significant. Suppose your candies were once the favorites of Roald Dahl, and they were the reason why he wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Not only can you use that as an on-going story for selling candy, but you've got a naturally big story, for instance, when that movie hits the theaters.

 

A Powerful Key - Emotion

Another possible trick to making your story newsworthy is to add human interest to generate reader emotion.

 

Now, this is a tricky issue. Some experts out there will tell you to stick with just the facts in a press release while others highly recommend turning a release into something of a feature story -- so long as it's still sticking to the facts. What this means is that different people are getting POSITIVE RESULTS from different approaches.

 

This boils things down to a simple principle: if you're producing something that's valuable to the media's audience, you've got potential for getting into the media.

 

Keeping that in mind, you can develop a story that evokes emotions -- whether amusement, disbelief, shock, etc. -- in order to generate interest. Once you've done so, of course, you'll want to make sure that you've still promoted your business, but in this case, you'll generally have done so in a more round-about way. This is a good tactic for raising awareness of your business or influencing public opinion about it.

 

Want an example? Imagine a restauranteur who healed her mother's cancer through diet. She could develop a powerful story (perhaps even an on-going story to create and maintain interest in her business) that showcased the approach. She could also point out that her restaurant serves all the foods used in the diet, and that she will choose one local cancer patient at a time to fully provide meals for while they are undergoing treatment for cancer. Think THAT could generate some media interest?

 

The Cold Truth to Keep in Mind

In the end, it's important to keep one thing firmly in mind when going after publicity: editors don't really care about you and your story. But they do care about selling newspapers, so if you help them to do that, they're more likely to take an interest.

 

When possible, research each media outlet you are sending your release to and try to meet their specific needs to increase your chance of getting their interest. If you're sending your story out across the newswires to hundreds of media outlets, at least research and contact those that are most important to your success. Writing professionally, without grammatical errors, and -- most importantly -- writing NEWS will quickly put you ahead of many of the other releases sent to the media each day.