Think Like a Journalist to Get Publicity

by Dana Lynn Smith

To get media coverage, you have to provide value to readers and viewers. Make sure your news releases pass the "who cares?" test. The headline and lead paragraph of your news release must be compelling and grab the interest of the reporter by offering something their readers would be interested in. Then the release needs to deliver on the promise delivered in the headline and lead.

In crafting your news releases, it may be helpful to try to think like a journalist. Try this exercise,  substituting your own field or genre:

Imagine that you are a staff health reporter for a newspaper. You write on a variety of health topics, including diet, exercise, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and more. Your job is to write quality articles that inform readers about important health issues, but you need to write about topics that will attract a wide readership. Subscribers and readers are the name of the game—they attract the advertisers that pay your salary.

You're really busy, researching and writing stories to meet a daily deadline. You receive dozens of news releases each day, and most days you only have time to skim their headlines to see if anything grabs your attention. You probably don't care that Jane Doe wrote a book (unless Jane lives in your area). You are interested in health-related topics that are timely, local, unusual, important and /or will attract a wide readership. So, what type of topics might grab your attention in a pile of news releases?

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  • A local public presentation this week on a health topic
  • How to prevent whatever disease a celebrity recently died from or was diagnosed with
  • New medical research findings and how they might help current patients
  • How the bills being debated in Congress will change the way we get health care
  • An unusual treatment for a common disease
  • How to mentally cope with a particular medical condition
  • How to get the best health care for your family

Remember, the media are not in the business of giving you free advertising; they are in the business of providing news, information, and entertainment to their readers and viewers and generating an audience to attract advertisers. You'll have more success getting publicity if you put yourself in their shoes and deliver what they need.