Making Ink and Airtime

1
Making Ink and Airtime

• Mark Hunter LaVigne, APR

2
Preamble

• MR one of the only PR disciplines to go through
  third party gatekeeper to end audience
• Key messaging must be newsworthy
• Very effective when integrated
• Hit target seven times

3
English Canadian News Marketplace

• Concentration of ownership
• Electronic highways gridlock
• According to Ipsos Reid, business journalists
  Receive about 150 news releases/week. 18 used.
  19 news conference invitations/month, 50 get
  reporter. 60 annual reports/year. 16 used
  quickly. 20 media kits/month. 19 used.

4
Inundation Examples

• Marc Saltzman
• 200 e-mails/day, 10 voicemails
• John Valorzi
• 200 e-mails/day, 75 to 100 voicemails

5
What the News Media Want in English Canada

• News releases be concise - 300 to 400 words in
  length.
• News must be on an electronic platter - in
  electronic format for easy editing and
  re-packaging.
• Images/video/audio must be easily accessible but
  in high quality.

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What the News Media Want in English Canada

• Spokespeople must come to them electronically
  and in person. News conferences are generally too
  time consuming. And quote the spokesperson!!!!
• News must obviously be of interest to a given
  media outlets audience.
• Should be correlation between CDROM, news
  releases, website, photography and videography

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What the News Media Want in English Canada

• Website should have easily accessible Media
  Section as well as high-resolution photography
  (300 dpi, 8X10 JPEGs). Or use third-party sites.
• News releases should be newsworthy.
•  News releases and media advisories ideally
  distributed regularly.

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What the News Media Want in English Canada

• Where relevant, English news copy must be
  translated into French (and/or Chinese) or other
  target languages. 
• Where budget permits, information should be
  distributed both directly to media via e-mail as
  well as through a paid wire service so media hit
  with the messaging at least twice to overcome
  danger of being lost in the inundation media face
  today.

9
What the News Media Want in English Canada

• Designated spokespersons must be always ready to
  deal with last minute media requests. If we
  cant service media in a timely manner, our
  competition will! Quote who is designated!

10
MR Principles

•       content
•       context
•       organizational access
•       proactive response
•       relationships with the news media

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Make it Newsworthy

• Follow the Five Ws of News Who, what, why,
  where, when, and Rudyard Kiplings sixth how
• 300-400 words, 1 to 1.5 pages maximum
• Distribute via several channels Direct via
  e-mail
• Direct via snail mail Direct via fax Paid wire
• Services self-serve websites

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News Release Dos and Donts

• Avoid clichés state-of-the-art or
  world-class
•  
•   Avoid hyperbole, puffery
•  
• Competition Act be very, very, very aware of it
•  
• Pay special attention to keywords for
• search engines
•  
•       

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News Release Dos and Donts

• Quotes add colour but should continue story, and
  are good for search engines because use specific
  names
•  
• Quoted should be available for interviews
•  
• Contextualize the story
•  

14
News Release Dos and Donts

• Never call it a press release!
•  
• Never use for immediate release
•  
•   MR is not FREE publicity
•  
•  

15
E-mail Dos and Donts 

• Subject line should be as specific as possible
• including actions i.e. news release new CEO at
• XYZ Corp
•  
• Never send attachments to the media unsolicited
• cut and paste the text
•  
• Use web site direct URLs to sizable files such
  as
• JPEGs, PDFs, MP3s, MPEG video

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E-mail Dos and Donts

• More and more e-mail is mobile, so keep in mind
• the media are on Blackberry or Treo
•  
• Be prompt in your replies, under 2 hours ideal
• Always put your contacts coordinates into e-mail
• Always BCC when sending to media

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E-mail Dos and Donts

• Always review copy and list before hitting
• the send button
• Send in batches of under 25 to avoid media
• SPAM filters

18
Making Airtime VNR/BROLL Tips 

• From Steve Dekter, a 20-year veteran for
• CTV, Global, CNN and ABC News
•  
• Hire a videographer with news experience
• wedding video wont cut it!
•  
• Shoot it in Betacam format.

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Making Airtime VNR/BROLL Tips

• Live to tape is fine - edit if you have
• time/budget.
• Shoot as a news videographer would shoot it
  dont
• make it too polished.
• Hire a staging company when it is a news event so
• lighting, backdrop signage and audio feeds are
  all
• present and in working order.

20
Making Ink Photo Tips

• From Ron Welch, a 25 year photo veteran and
• General Manager of CPimages, a division of
• Canadian Press
• Hire a news photographer
• A good photo is new and in some way unusual
• and shows action the instant it happens.

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Making Ink Photo Tips

• Large empty spaces should always be avoided in
• news photos the entire frame should contain
• useful information.
•  
• Stand-up group shots, unless filled with VIPs,
• dont work.
•  
• The digital format of choice is an 8X10, 300 dpi
• JPEG.

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Web Site Newsroom

• Put Newsroom top left corner on Home Page
• Park all photos, video, MP3 clips in a designated
  web site newsroom
• Text in Word and PDF
• Build archive to serve media with factoids
• Do not password protect it just for media
  monitoring
• purposes

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Follow-up Tips

• From Marc Saltzman and John Valorzi
•  
• Find out the journalists preferred medium
  phone,
• e-mail, fax and always ask if theyre on deadline
• Pay close attention to your e-mails subject line
•  
• Dont tease to enable a follow-up call as an
  excuse

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Follow-up Tips

• Dont wait to the last minute to follow-up (a
  week before an
• event is perfect)
• Make sure the beat matches the content before you
  
• follow-up
• Provide a customized story angle or context in
  follow-up
• communications
• Pick your battles, dont follow-up on everything
• Dont be a Time Bandit

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Media Monitoring

• Subscribe to more than one media monitoring
  service
• Subscribe to relevant publications and e-zines
• Key wording helps in the finding process
• Beg the media to send it to you/comp lists
• Use in-house media services i.e. Sun
  Media/Canwest

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Interview Tips

• Keep your answer as short as possible.
• Remember the ten second quote rule.
•  
• Tape your interview if possible.
•  
• If you dont know the answer, admit it.
• Promise to get back to the journalist later with
  the
• answer if possible.