Tips From Our Experts

Reach the media with your news release

There’s a bit of an art to reaching the media with a news release, and every business’s PR work has a different chance of succeeding. Still, everyone has the opportunity – especially in today’s sprawling media landscape – to get their news covered by a journalist. To increase your chances, there are also a variety of factors to take into consideration.

It’s important to bear in mind just how well-known your business is when writing your news. This is one of you key communicative starting points and a significant feature in the newsworthiness of your message. As a rule, the more well-known a company is, the more interesting it is to write about. For example, if Volvo fire their CEO it is massive news. But if a small café round the corner fire their manager, most journalists won’t even raise an eyebrow. In other words, if your company isn't massive, you need to make sure you fulfill plenty of the following criteria and demonstrate just how newsworthy your news release is, making it really interesting for journalists and other stakeholders.

Tips:

Stay up-to-date

Events that have just happened are more interesting than things that happened a while ago.

Reveal Something

Events that are completely unknown are often more interesting than something that is already known.

Relevance

Events and stories that are relevant to what the media are writing about are more interesting than those that aren’t.

Consequences

The greater the consequences or repercussions of an event, the more newsworthy it is.

Up to the minute

The more up to the minute your news is, the more interesting it is. You should, accordingly, keep up to date with everything that concerns your business.

Dramatise

Cover dramatic events such as conflicts, set-backs, and exciting news, etc., as these are often more interesting than less dramatic events.

Surprise

News that’s particularly unusual or unexpected is more interesting than news that’s not.

Give it a personal edge – with well-known figures

News that concerns a person is often interesting. And the more well-known the person is the better.

Create a sensation

If you can manage to put together something that combines something dramatic and unusual with someone or something that’s really well-known, you’ve got much ore chance creating a sensation and being covered.

Share something useful

If you can share useful information that will help the reader do something or succeed with something, you may well garner attention.

Explain the facts

News based on sound evidence from, for example, recent studies, reports, surveys, etc, is often interesting. Especially if it involves statistics and includes some of the other key criteria listed here.

Complement something with additional information

Related information is worth its weight in gold. If you can connect your news with other relevant information such as pictures, reports, experts, etc., you increase your chances of getting publicity.

David vs Goliath

It’s often interesting if a small company or less well-known person takes on or challenges a larger company or well-known figure. Especially if it involves something unusual or an unusual approach.

Be inventive – do something cool

Fun, cool and sometimes slightly bizarre stories are often featured in the media.

Report on a success

Different kinds of success, particularly when they have a personal edge, can be very successful in generating media attention.