If you aspire to get media coverage for yourself or for something you represent, watch television and read newspapers and magazines. Become an avid viewer and reader. Knowing the kind of stories different media outlets cover is essential to getting covered. If you want them to know what you do, learn what they do.
Every media outlet has a unique style of story telling. Every media outlet focuses on different subjects. Even the evening news on different television networks, in the same country, will take a different approach to the same story.
I have had members of organizations who seek publicity confuse two television outlets as vastly different as CNN and CBC. CNN is an American-owned, all-news cable channel. It has it’s own unique appraoch to broadcasting news. CBC is a publicly-funded, Canadian television network that broadcasts news, sports, drama, comedy, current affairs and almost any other form of information and entertainment. It projects a very traditional form of journalism.
Newspapers and magazines will have equally diverse approaches to what they cover and how they cover it.
Whether or not a particular media outlet will be interested in your story or your subject matter depends on their approach to journalism. Knowing more about different media outlets will help you determine whether or not to approach a particular outlet. You will also make better decisions about who should be on your mailing list for news releases.
Become a viewer and a reader that looks at both the content and the style in which it is delivered. Make a habit of always noting what network you were watching or what paper you were reading when you saw a story that interested you.
