Timeliness and the Media – News Travels Fast or Not at All

I’ve been a tardy blogger lately. I apologize to all you regular readers for going so long without a post. It’s a good thing I don’t treat news releases and writing for publication in the same manner. My blogging habits are, admittedly, a bad example for those to whom I emphasize the importance of timeliness when reaching out to the media. If I have any excuse it’s that I’ve been working on projects for which timeliness is more important than blogging.

There are simply no excuses for not being timely when looking for publicity. Whether you are issuing a news release, meeting a journalist for an interview, or returning a call to a journalist, being prompt is critically important. Journalists live their lives against a deadline. If you respect that, you can prevent negative publicity. You may also increase the publicity you get because they know you are accessible and won’t cause them frustration.

The relationship between tardiness and negative publicity is rarely understood by the subjects who do interviews. If you are late or hard to track down, you are pushing the journalist’s deadline. You make their deadline tighter and tighter. The end result is that they write a story about you in a rush. The writing task comes on the heels of a period of frustration. They may not intend to give the story a less than positive tone, but human nature is that they are not feeling positive about you at the time. It can easily come through in the tone of the story.

I often receive a news release the day after news has happened. Some organizations believe this is not a problem. Their response is “It’s okay with us if it goes in the paper a couple days later”.  What they fail to understand is that a late news release does not result in news being published or broadcast later. It results in it not being published or broadcast at all. Media organizations that handle daily news will not allow themselves to appear to be late. They don’t want their readers and viewers to think they are using old news. They would appear unprofessional. Unless it is very big news, they will simply ignore it.

If you are issuing new releases or doing interviews, have a similar position on appearing professional. Even if you are targeting weekly newspapers or trade publications and you know they their deadline is not the day of your news, issue your news release immediately when the news happens. It makes you look professional. They don’t know who else is on your mailing list. But they are journalists and they understand the importance of timeliness in news.

A Press Release Has Three Chances to Be Read

Many people who embark on a media relations campaign are overly concerned with the volume of news releases they issue. On the receiving end, many journalists are also concerned with the overwhelming volume they receive — the majority of which don’t suit their needs or don’t provide useful information. A significant percentage of news releases are deleted without ever being opened.

 

If you are sending news releases, you have three chances to be sure that recipients read them.

 

1. The sender’s address – Whoever is making contact with the media on your behalf needs to guard their reputation among journalists carefully. If journalists feel they are “spammed” or feel that the information provided is not of use to them, they may hit delete upon seeing the return address. On the other hand, if they have had useful information from that address in the past, they might jump in an open it quickly, eager to find another story.

 

2. The headline – Now you are depending on the receiver having gotten past the return address or maybe the sender’s address was unfamiliar to them but you were lucky and they choose to read further anyway. Now, the headline, which will be the subject line in the e-mail, has to tell them that this news is for them. If it doesn’t sound like news at this point, it’s unlikely to become news.

 

3. The lead – The lead is the first line of the body of your release. To get to this, the recipient has to have opened it. But, opening an e-mail does not come with an obligation to read the whole thing. The lead in a news release has to grab attention. It should be the most important nugget of your news in a nutshell. Keeping the most important part in a succinct nutshell is important. This is one of the many areas of media relations where journalism training and experience, or at least an understanding of the craft, is critical. If a news release is written in a newspaper style, the reader is more likely to see a story emerging. If the lead is strong and newsworthy, they will read the entire release.

How to Judge a Media Relations Campaign

The number-one way to judge a media relations campaign is by the results.

 

Whether you hire a professional, use a volunteer, or your media relations efforts are a group effort by various members of your organization, you will want to assess its success at some point. In previous posts, I have stressed the importance of making a plan and learning about how the media works. Within a specified time period, probably three to six months, depending on your level of activity, you will want to review the campaign. This may result in changes to the plan.

 

Media relations is more than just sending out news releases. Therefore, you should review all actions that have been taken by the person(s) responsible, including news releases, direct contact with members of the media, and other actions. “What was the result?” is the most important question.

 

Is your level of exposure in the media increasing? Are you or your organization getting more exposure in the type of media outlet that will benefit you (mass-market vs. specialty, newspaper vs. magazine vs. electronic). How much space are these media outlets devoting to your story?

 

One of the biggest mistakes made in judging a media relations service is to measure it by the number of news releases generated. This is a poor way to measure a campaign because, if those news releases aren’t being used by the media, they are a waste of your money and/or time.

 

However, it is important to have realistic expectations. While counting news releases is the number-one mistake, the second most common problem is believing something is newsworthy that is not.

News is Called “News” for a Reason

Notice that the word “news” is derived from the word “new”. News is generally new information. The news business works on a 24-hour cycle. You only get one chance to break news. After that it’s old news and interest in it declines at about the same rate as the value of a new car when you drive it off the dealer’s lot.

Writing and releasing news releases is not a 9-5 job, even if the news is about a 9-5 organization. There are several reasons to get the word out as soon as something newsworthy occurs.

All media organizations like to be the first to carry news. If you release it to everyone at the same time, they will all attempt to be the first (unless they are a weekly or monthly publication and know they can’t be).

If you create a target date and time at when to release it, there is a big risk that someone in the media will learn about it first. Usually when something newsworthy happens, more than one person is involved. Chances are good that those people will tell their families, friends or co-workers. Once word spreads, the local newspaper is likely to call one of those involved. Once one media organization has carried a story, a plan to release it a day or two later will backfire. Media outlets lose interest in old news.

If you have a newsworthy announcement to make or something newsworthy happens, be prepared to act quickly. Great publicity opportunities can be missed if you let time pass.

“Gag orders”  and “embargos” usually have no useful purpose. They can only be imposed by a judge and, even then, are used with great caution.

What’s the Hook?

One of the biggest mistakes made when trying to get publicity is not understanding that every story needs to have a strong “hook”. The hook is the angle of the story, the narrow focus, that keeps it from being too broad to be interesting.

In order to successfully attract media attention, you have to be capable of finding “hooks” that appeal to editors and producers.

For example, if you ask a reporter to do a story on a particular health condition, the subject is too broad unless it’s a condition about which most people are completely unaware. So you have to narrow the focus to a particularly interesting angle. The same is true if the subject is a particular sport, or any other broad subject.

If you write a press release and don’t open with a strong hook, the recipients may not read the remainder.

One of the most useful tools in media relations is knowing how to recognize a story and find a strong hook. If you can do that, or have someone who can, you are virtually guaranteed to create publicity opportunities.