National media companies get local
A recent posting by Mitch Winkel on the eMarketer blog discusses a new media trend: going “hyper-local” in an attempt to lure in consumers who have abandoned the traditional newspaper as a source for local news. Hyper-local news is content that covers a very specific, finite geographic area, often a single community or even a neighborhood within a community. Companies exploring the hyper-local marketplace include AOL, Gannett, and a regional media company, Pacific northwest-based Fisher Communications. Sports media giant ESPN has introduced local sports websites for major markets in Dallas, Boston, LA, New York and Chicago. And CNN’s iReport has been encouraging citizen participation in journalism at the local level for nearly four years.
While newspapers long excelled in delivering local news, the Internet is less fertile ground—for now. While online national and international news sites such as CNN.com and Yahoo! news, and newsy, political blogs like Huffington Post and the Drudge Report are wildly popular, the local news scene has been hit-and-miss, depending on whether or not local media established a strong online presence. Social media have filled in the gaps where local media have fallen short, helping users to stay connected with happenings online while sharing information and interacting in real time—something that print newspapers can’t do.
The decision by major media companies like AOL and Gannett to go local from the top down—delivered by a national company to the local market—brings up several questions that remain unanswered. First, what about credibility? Consumers can smell an outsider a mile away. If the hyper-local media offerings put forth by these companies don’t “sound” local, with real local knowledge, then consumers will tune them out.
For example, many of the traffic and weather reports given during drive-time on AM news talk stations aren’t originating in a “traffic center” in the local studio. They’re being phoned in on a high-quality digital telephone line from a desk at a location that can be hundreds or thousands of miles away. And sometimes it shows—the announcer will mispronounce a town or street name that any local would know. Hiring local writers and reporters will be key to the credibility of these efforts.
Second, local newspapers aren’t ignorant of the fact that local news sells. In an age when the Internet is a far more efficient source for national and international news, offering up-to-the-minute breaking news and a wide variety of perspectives, the local newspaper—and its online counterpart—remain the best place for Little League news, local human interest stories, and other news that the national companies don’t cover well for obvious reasons. They’re sure to mount a strong challenge, paralleling the fight between mom-and-pop retail stores and WalMart in many communities around the country. What’s uncertain is whether the local news media can be more successful than the mom and pop stores have been.
The battle for hyper-local news dominance is worth watching because it’s part of the much broader debate and battle for the future of the publishing industry. Some major players have decided that this is where at least part of their future is at. We’ll see.
Writing a Great Press Release, Part I
For an assignment in my news writing class in college, we were asked to attend a local “happening” and write a basic news story on it. Simple enough…but I couldn’t leave it at that. Somehow I managed to convince the professor to let me write a press release instead of a hard news story. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for the lowly press release. Spurned by big newsrooms, welcomed by small weeklies with two-person staffs, the press release can be an effective tool for getting your message out.
A press release is not an advertisement or a way to drive people to your website. It is, however, a way to inform the media about the aspects of your product, service or company that may be newsworthy. News editor consider something to be newsworthy if it’s new, timely, controversial, unique, humorous, interesting or different.
First off, know this: news editors could care less about helping you promote your product or service. That’s left to the folks in the advertising sales department, and the two groups are like oil and water. From an editor’s perspective, advertising sales is a necessary evil. Of course, without paid ads, there would be no magazine or newspaper.
What editors do care about is news. That’s why your press release can’t focus on business as usual. Put yourself in the editor’s shoes—what can you share with them that their readers want to know? What is new at your company? What interesting stories can you tell? Do you have an employee who is an Iraq war vet? What does your business do that no one else does? What has your business helped a client do well? What is time sensitive that needs to get published now?
News editors are literally bombarded with press releases from all over the country, and even the world. What separates your message from the rest of the pack? Even if your release is about the latest trend in communication devices, an offering of affordable health insurance, or a personal injury lawyer who can get you money for your injury, you still have to have a “hook.” Ninety-nine percent of press release content is focused on what the writer wants to say and not focused on what the customer—the news editor—wants to read. News people call PR folks “flaks,” a derogatory term that refers to the annoying anti-aircraft fire that World War II bombers had to fly through on the way to the target. Is your story “flak” material, or news?
Every company should keep a supply of story ideas on hand that will make for great press releases (and great newspaper articles) when business is slow or when there’s a slow news day. If you build a reputation as a great source of legitimate news stories, you’ll have editors and reporters calling you for ideas. Remember, small newspapers and magazines are always desperate for content and short on people to generate it. As a result, sometimes they will often publish your entire press release verbatim!
Now that you know what to put in a press release, we’ll focus on how to structure and write in it part II.