While the broadcast industry can seem simple on the surface, there are a number of forces working in the background and a number of gateways a story has to go through before making it to air. Understanding the judging criteria of the newsdesk, producers and reporters and who the right person to reach is can make all the difference on whether or not your story makes it to air.
• Broadcast is a visual medium, so selling a story about a website can be particularly tough. It’s important that as you are contacting broadcast media that you are able to highlight a visual opportunity for something they can film, even if it’s largely B-roll. Some good examples of this include Rentoid’s appearance on A Current Affair which used images of garages and junk and a video produced on rented gear to give a visual to their site’s ability to rent out your items. Make sure you explain these visual opportunities when you sell the story so that the producer or reporter understands the value of the story.
• If your site addresses a problem or topic that has recently been in the news, seize on the opportunity. Does your site help graduates? Use the end of the semester to create a story on how you can help them find jobs. Do you sell accounting software? When tax time rolls around use the opportunity to pitch a story on the security of online accounting. Don’t just look at the news your company is producing, but how you fit into local stories or global stories that the media will be looking for a local angle on. The financial crisis has opened up a window for almost any money saving site to get press and you can watch an example here with drivemycar.com.au.
• Identify the right reporter or network to call and the right time slot and day. Understand what a news network is looking for before you pitch your story…a morning show generally goes live, so they don’t have editing or lot of B-Roll so unless you can give a live demonstration with your product or are having an event they can shoot live at, this isn’t the choice for you. News shows like a Current Affair are more likely to be able to interview and edit, so this might be more of an avenue for a website or a product that isn’t good for an entertaining live demo. Also, understand the days and months when you might have less competition. News tends to slow down on weekends, during summer and around major holidays, so these are good times to get the press to pick up on a story that they might usually skip.
• Offer interview sources. The company CEO is the natural start, but it’s important to remember that the broadcaster may be trying to fill up at least up to five minutes and so that’s a lot of time with only one person on camera. If you can get customers to offer testimonials and tell their story of using the site, it’s a big boon. Including availability times and the contact phone numbers and email addresses of sources will help the reporter have less leg work and will make them more likely to snap on your story.
• Walk the line between persistent and annoying in contacting media. First, always email or mail a copy of your press release to the assignment desk. After you have sent it, call to make sure they have received it. An assignment desk will have a slew of stories flooding in and many times good and newsworthy stories can just slip through the cracks. If you are having an event, sale or fundraiser, call again the day of or the day before. Frequently stations are looking for stories to fill blocks at the last minute and may have forgotten what you sent so remind them that the event is about to happen and they may have a spare photographer or reporter to send. If you can get your release out to both the news desk and the reporter, you’ve doubled your chances.
