COVERAGE – HOW TO GET IT
Whatever your station
shines at—charity events, concerts, stunts, community celebrations—you want
news coverage. And you want your call letters and dial position in that
coverage. Newspaper and TV often omit these critical points, often because
the radio station in question just sends out a press release, instead of
getting to know the right person at each media outlet.
The Tactics for
establishing media relationships are common sense, what your mother told
you.
Do your
homework: Find out who the right
contact is. Know what type of story the person prefers to cover. Learn
deadlines and don’t miss them. Find out whether the contact
prefers paper, email, MP3 files, etc., and always use the
preferred form.
Be
newsworthy: Make sure you have a
story to tell that is of interest to the media outlet’s audience. Stay on
message. Whether you call, write, or visit, be prepared to talk
thoroughly about what you’re doing and why it’s worth covering.
Be on
time: Get your information out
early enough to allow the contacts to plan to cover your event. If an
interview is asked for, get there five minutes early and allow
enough time in case it runs long.
Watch
your language: You represent
your station, so make sure that your speech or writing is correct
and doesn’t contain bad or suggestive language, even if you’re a hard
rock station. After all, you never know who will see or hear your
material – it could be your contact’s boss who is much more strict
than the person with whom you’ve built a relationship.
There’s
another part to the language issue – don’t send out anything that’s full
of mistakes. If you’re not sure how a word is spelled, look it up or
ask someone who knows.
Proofread
everything, and have someone else read what you write, too.
Don’t rely
on Spell Check – it makes a lot of basic grammar mistakes, and
often will change “you’re” to “your” when you mean “you are.”
Spell
Check can’t tell “its” from “it’s.” A good journalist judges you by the
words you use (and the ones you don’t).
Once you
get coverage, say thank you, preferably in writing, which includes
e-mail.