Problems can often bring opportunities.
A great sadness to me in recent years has been the cutbacks in newsrooms and journalism.
The migration of advertising revenue online has meant lots of publications closing, or reducing the number of journalists they employ.
I think that’s a shame for my former profession, but most importantly for society.
Journalists are the eyes and ears of us all, holding the powerful to account and scrutinising the dark corners of life that many would prefer to be hidden.
However, switching to a part of my current role, those cutbacks to journalism bring an opportunity.
Reporters and editors are under pressure like never before.
They often have exactly the same amount of airtime, newsprint, or online space to fill, and commonly even more, but far fewer staff to do so.
Which means, if you can offer a story that has everything an editor needs to run it, all properly written, gift wrapped with a little bow on top, they are far more likely to take it.
That offers not just the opportunity to get your message out there to potentially millions of people...
But also in precisely the form you want. A lovely big advert, in other words, all for free.
And what's not to like about that?!
I’ve just had the pleasure of working with my friends at Outfield Technologies (say hello to Jim and Oli, in the photo), who are pioneering a new future for fruit farming.
They wanted to spread word of the successful conclusion of their first funding round.
The target media was a range of publications, but particularly the horticulture and business press.
How to achieve that?
My advice was to write the story exactly as a reporter might, and lo and behold…
We got plenty of coverage in exactly the outlets we wanted (including on this website here).
Hundreds of thousands of people will have seen the story.
Plus the memory of it is there online, a stash of terrific positive publicity for any time a potential customer, investor or partner looks up the company.
So how do you present a gift wrapped story to an editor, making it just too tempting for them to resist?
These are my top tips for what to think about:
The Headline
Use this as the title/subject heading for your email, and spend time on making it good.
It should be short, sharp, and striking.
Right to the heart of the story, no messing about, hook the journalist from the start.
If you don’t, they're so busy they'll simply bin your offering and get onto the next thing.
The headline we wrote for Outfield worked a treat:
Cambridge start up raises £750,000 for its revolutionary system promising a new future to fruit farming
From there, make sure your opening line is also a killer, expanding on the most interesting and important part of the story.
For Outfield, we wrote this:
A Cambridge company that helps growers produce more fruit, be more efficient and increase sustainability by using drone technology and artificial intelligence has successfully closed its first funding round.
If you get the headline and the opening right, you should pretty much have hooked the journalist, and are already very likely to get coverage.
But now, checklist that you have included everything else which is required:
First of all, all the facts:
Tick off the who, what, why, where, when and how.
Cover these, and you should have included all the information the reporter needs.
Next, include some quotes:
Not too many, you only need about 100 words maximum from each of the key players in the story.
And make sure they're worth reading.
Not wishy-washy, but have something to say: whether it’s a celebration, a claim of taking over the world, whatever you like.
Quotes are critical in adding colour to a story, so make them interesting.
Next, include a couple of photographs:
Whoever is quoted should have a picture, plus your product, technology, or whatever.
Smartphone photos are perfectly fine, so long as they're well taken, in good light, and at a resolution of at least one meg.
Also, write your story like a reporter would:
That means short, stark sentences, full of facts.
Like these, in fact.
And don't go on more than you need to.
Say what you have to and stop.
As a rule of thumb, around 500 words, or a side of A4, is about right for a news release.
Finally, some dull details about conventions:
You should add a date for your release, along with putting the city and country of origin, and telling the journalist whether it's under embargo to a future date, or for immediate release.
For example, in the case of this blog:
- Cambridge, UK, 18th October, 2021 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Critically here, don’t forget to include your contact details.
You’ll be sending the news release out on email, but always include a mobile number.
Reporters are impatient, and may want the story at once.
If they can’t phone you to either arrange an interview, get more details, or check a point, you risk losing the chance of coverage.
Regarding who to send the story to, the question is who's of most benefit to you?
Customers? Investors? Potential new staff?
Think about the publications they'd read, whether business or trade press, local, regional or national media.
All news outlets list their email addresses online.
It's in their interests to have people getting in touch with stories, after all.
Find that address, send off your release to as many media outlets as you like...
And that really is about it.
Not so hard, eh?
If you’re not an experienced journalist, I reckon it would take you about half a day of work to do this.
But given the coverage you can get, as we so happily did with Outfield, the return on your investment can be enormous.
Lastly, here comes the inevitable plug (apologies!):
If you need help with getting media coverage, please get in touch.
It’s one of our specialities and we'd be happy to help.