Articles By Topic Alphabetical List of Articles		To Understand Publicity, You Need To Understand News By David P. Kowal, APR To be in the news, you have to understand news. That simple concept is regularly misunderstood by the business world. Press releases are distributed about the company's purchase of a box of paper clips or the CEO's new hairstyle, and then the company feels snubbed because its "news" isn't published (note: changing hairstyles are only news if the hair belongs to Louise Woodward or Hillary Clinton). Rather than waste money on a public relations consultant, the company president or the vice president of sales (since public relations is part of marketing and marketing is part of sales) takes the matter into his (or her) own hands. He calls the editor and threatens to pull his advertising! This cynical strategy is based on the premise that reporters understand that advertising pays their meager salaries and that less advertising means less money in their pockets. This is faulty logic on two counts: first, if reporters cared about money, they wouldn't be reporters, and second, they resent being beholden to those capitalist swine in the advertising department and - just to demonstrate the power of the press - are guaranteed to diss you in print if you threaten them. So What? If publicity is to be part of your public relations and marketing strategy, begin with an understanding of what constitutes news. If you think you have something newsworthy to say, write a press release about it, then take the "So what?" test. Put yourself in the mindset of a potential reader of the publication you are targeting, then read the press release. If you find yourself thinking, "So what?" then your press release lacks news value. If your business does something unusual or unique, such as offering a special service or a new product, it is likely to achieve significant coverage. For example, one of our real estate clients, Princeton Properties, decided to offer Internet connections to residents of a property it was rehabilitating. Because the property is located close to various high-tech companies, other electronic features were added, such as a coinless laundromat and electronic temperature control. By positioning these apartments as "smart apartments," we were able to achieve a wide range of coverage, including a feature in The Boston Globe. We took the story further by pitching articles to national real estate media. The Journal of Property Management ran an article we produced about adding smart features to apartments during rehabilitation, and UNITS ran a "Technology" column from the president of Princeton Properties. Some business news is pretty mundane. Many publications will, of course, publish information about new hires, acquisitions and expansions, and significant business transactions. A few may even publish information about company milestones, such as your 10th anniversary in business. But if your firm doesn't produce a great deal of breaking news, how else can it gain media exposure? For starters, try asking the editors of publications, the news directors of radio stations and the assignment editors at local TV stations about their needs. If you position yourself as a resource, your chances of achieving publicity for your company will be greatly enhanced. Business reporters in particular are often looking for credible sources that they can contact on a regular basis. Over time, you may succeed in building relationships with key editors and reporters. To accomplish this, you will need to return calls promptly and provide them with good, accurate information. Don't whine when you see a competitor being quoted. A good reporter will use several sources and will not rely solely on you. In some cases, you may also submit articles that you write yourself. With a little luck, you may even gain fame and fortune as a columnist like yours truly. This is the ideal situation, because we not only receive repeated exposure, but we're the only ones who can consistently get away with providing information that is not newsworthy.   David P. Kowal is President of Kowal Communications, Inc. of Northboro, Mass. He can be reached at kowal@kowal.com.  << back to article list   About KC. | .Free advice. | .Links. | .Contact us. | .Home ©1999 Kowal Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.   .