Generating Media Coverage for Your School Participating in the Young Reporters Competition

Generating media coverage for your school participating in the Young Reporters Competition

Securing media coverage for your event gives people in your local community the chance to know you are holding an event, helps you to raise awareness for you and your support for WWF.

Regional media includes newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and websites, which all need to fill their pages and programmes with interesting local stories.

You may wish to contact their news desk in the first instance to find out when their deadlines are and how they like being sent potential stories.

PLACING YOUR STORY

1. Identify your target media

The first step will be to decide the media you would like to target.

The first step when promoting your work is to identify all possible regional outlets for your story: the main newspapers, radio and TV programmes, as well as regional and community websites and newsletters. Get a feel for the media in your area:

 Read your local newspaper  Watch or listen to your local television and radio station  Get online and surf the local newspaper, BBC and ITV news sites to see the type of stories they run.

You should be able to get the switch board number for your local newspaper by calling the directory of enquiries and then once you have called the switch board you will need to ask for the news desk or a reporter that covers your area. Take the name and number and be asked to be put through.

2. Contacting media

When you email journalists remember to copy and paste the template release into the body of the email as attachments don’t always get through spam. Include a short covering note above the press release, briefly summarising the main points and emphasising the local angle.

Even if you have the personal email address for a good contact, we’d recommend that you CC in the main news desk email alias to minimise the chance of it being overlooked. 3. Working with the local press to promote your event

 Once you have spoken to them about your story, follow up by sending your release by email. Ensure when you email over the press release and event details, you leave your contact number  They may like a picture or a quote from the spokesperson (teacher organising the schools participation) to illustrate the story more  Send out news releases and diary notes (advance notice of forthcoming events) in good time. To keep it newsworthy – send out within good time of the competition running. Deadlines for a weekly paper will be very different those of a daily evening newspaper or local radio, for example. Typically it is good to give several days’ notice of any event. Extra time needs to be built it if there are logistics to arrange like setting up interviews or photography at a venue. It is best to find out and work to the deadlines of the media outlets you are targeting.  Make sure you treat the media like special guests. If they came in response to your release, thank them and make it worth their while.  Call or email to say thank you to media contacts for the coverage

Press coverage is never guaranteed but the more you get to know your local media, become familiar with their content, interests and presentation styles, the easier it will be to gain a good rapport. Over time journalists will also get to know and trust you as a reliable source of local stories.

4. Getting your story covered on radio

 There are various routes into getting your story on local radio. You may have contacts at the station, which you should exploit. For news stories it is always worth contacting the news desk.  Also, it is worth contacting the ‘forward planning desk’, which keeps a diary of forthcoming events. It will share the information about the event with the programme producers and news editors, who will decide whether your story is of interest to them.  It may be that you think the subject matter of your event will be of interest to particular shows on the station. In this case, you could contact the programme producers or even the presenters directly. Many of the considerations detailed above about working with local newspapers will also apply to getting your story on local radio. For this story to work for local radio they may like an entry or some children to read their report on the news for example.

And remember:

 If the journalist didn’t cover your pre-event release, don’t be afraid to send it to them again as a post-event release with the amount raised and a photo  Respond quickly to any initial interest and find out any deadlines  If a journalist needs an interview or more information, check their deadline so you get back to them in plenty of time  Call or email to say thank you if media contacts come to your event or cover your story.