How To Read The Media, Why Journalists Want To Write About You

Well it’s December and I hope you’ve got that same Christmassy feeling that we have because we’ve got a bit of a special Christmas present to give away.

All of those who would like the chance of winning a completely free website makeover make sure you send a mail to creative@10yetis.co.uk with the subject “I WANT MY PRESENT” and a short paragraph stating what the current website is and why your website should be the one to receive our yeti love by December 24th.

Pass this on to those whom you think are in need but note that the offer is only open to our lovely newsletter subscribers. Right, with that said, on with the newsletter!

I guess that having worked in the media and marketing industry for what seems an age you forget loads of the basic stuff that amazed you when you first started out.

This newsletter looks at a really basic area, but one that I hope will make you to realise just how much the media wants to hear about you and your business story, and inspire you into having a go at speaking to your target media.

I wanted to put together a newsletter to show just how reliant the media is on getting information for their stories from public relations people and actual business owners such as yourself.

I stumbled across this as a potential newsletter topic earlier on this year when I had the pleasure of attending a Trust Networkers event at Towry Law offices in London. I went along with the MD of a client of ours, KashFlow as I had never been before.

Along with the usual networking opportunity there were two talks. One was from a guy who worked for Barclays and related to recovering losses and bad debts and the second talk was from Towry Law's internal public relations officer.

The Towry Law guy started by producing copies of the London free newspapers and asking the business owners around the table to identify those stories that were in the paper as a result of PR activity.

I sat back thinking that it was going to be a long night but then I started to notice a real buzz sweeping the room. It turns out not everyone reads the papers looking to find the PR angle; it is just public relations people who do that, along with those who are asked to do so.

I guarantee that once you have sat and gone through a paper, reading it in the new way, you will never go back to just trotting through taking in the mundane news.

As I said, I always thought everyone did this and now I know it is not the case, I have prepared a few examples to show you just how reliant the media is on YOUR company's public relations activity.

I have taken a mix of pages from national, regional and influential free media in order to demonstrate how every story on the chosen pages came from a cheeky bit of PR work, quite often done by the owners of the business themselves.

I want this to demonstrate just how little you have to fear about the media. They have to fill page after page of news every day and if you can give them something interesting, quirky, and maybe a good picture as well, then you are half way towards getting a mention.

Anyway, rambling to one side. Let's have a look at the examples. Do read these through, even the Times (shown below) is a user of PR stories.

FREE PAPER:
The London Paper – Tuesday 24 October
Business Section

The London Paper

1. Enron Boss To Appeal Sentence Came as a result of an article put onto the Press Association newswire. How did it get onto the newswire? Jeffrey Stirling's PR team made placed it there.
2. Successful 2008 Beckons for Tuna Came from a press release put out by the clothing brand Hot Tuna about a large contract it has secured.
3. Boost For Debenhams Came as a result of a press release sent out by Debenham about its annual profits.
4. Profit Slump for Troubled Firm Although the headline was negative the story came as a result of BP's annual results press release.
5. Hello, City Boys This was a PR stunt for Great Ormond St hospital. Blokes (and some women) paid £1 to push the scantily clad woman on a swing.

REGIONAL PAPER:
Bristol Evening Post
Wednesday 18 October

Bristol Evening Post

1. Unravelling IT Mysteries. To me this looks like an advertorial piece. This is where a company pays for an advert to look like an article.
2. Airline Makes Environment Pledge Came from a press release sent by the companies MD.
3. Office Move This could have come from one of two PR sources. Either the company who owns the un occupied building sent a message to the journo to show it is still operational and to get more companies to rent space, or the new company sent a press release.
4. Tip of the Week Once again this looks like a bit of advertorial, maybe as a result of sponsoring a certain section of the paper?
5. AIRBUS in Frame for big BA Deal Airbus employs 6000 people in Bristol so this is big news to the paper and will have came from a national press release also sent to the key regionals

FREE PAPER
The Metro
Friday October 20

The Metro

1. As if by magic a favourite returns Story about the refurbishment of Mr Benn. Release put out by owners of Mr Benn models.
2. Forget CD's it's a single on a stick A PR stunt put out by the group Keane's record label. They are issuing their next single on a memory stick.
3. Why every dog has its day Another research story, 9 out of 10 cats etc etc. This one was done by ICM and press released
4. We've forked out £600 online. Another survey, this time press released by Royal Mail.

MULTI REGIONAL
Western Mail
Wednesday 18 October

Western Mail

1. Fledgling Telecoms Firm... Press release from the telecoms company direct to the business editor.
2. Successor to Admiral Finance Named Again, a press release or maybe even a telephone conversation got this in the paper.
3. £1m investment Boosts Welsh Coal Supply For power Station This will have been a release from the coal company and also the backers wanting credit for their role.
3a. A good supporting picture to story 3
4. Loan Builds Link A press release from the local company and also the company making the loan.
5. Retail Giant to sell Penderyn Whisky across UK This was put out by the Welsh whisky company to announce that they had secured a national contract with a respected retail chain.
6. Hostility to EU This is a difficult one, the story has either come from the EU to help them get support, or from a lobbying group looking to get businesses to move away from supporting EU. Either way, it came via public relations work
6a. A good supporting picture (maybe a library shot to fill space in the paper?)

So, there we have it, you will never read the papers in the same way again, always looking for the angle used by the PR people and companies behind the story.

As I said at the outset, I wanted this to show you that the papers need you and your business story to, so why not have a think of a good angle and then get in touch with some of your local, trade or even national target media.

I think this may be the last newsletter of 2006. We may do another one just before Xmas to help you with marketing planning for 2008 but we have so much going on that we might not get chance.

Jilly and I would both like to thank people for continuing to read our newsletters. When we started doing them 2 years ago we never thought for one instant that we would be getting so many new people signing up every month.

We both really hope that you find them of use and we are always on the look out for new subjects, so if you ever have a subject or topic you think we can help with, please get in touch.

We both hope that you have a great Christmas and New Year and when you read our next newsletter it will be from our very first shiny and new office!

Thanks

Andy and Jilly