All of the businesses that I work with have one thing in common – they are newsworthy.
That means, they must have at least one media opportunity that they can avail of – a story or competition – that they can run in a media outlet.
So, let’s talk media opportunities- what do they look like?
Every business is different and so, will be suited to different media outlets.
Community news
This is hyper-local news and usually positive or “fluff and human interest” as we say in the industry.
Community papers are mostly free and rely solely on advertising for revenue.
They love good news stories and don’t mind if the story is not front-page breaking-news quality.
They also like readers’ comments and pics and often have a What’s On listing for events.
Community papers are sometimes the low hanging fruit of media opportunities.
The readership for these is quite powerful and often underestimated!
Regional weeklies
Many regions/provinces have their own weekly newspaper.
These papers usually have sections such as sport, business and lifestyle, as well as daily news sections.
It’s important to build relationships with journalists that cover your round as many daily papers have rounds reporters (health, sports, business etc).
Your regional news angle must be developed to get your story in and press releases are always a good idea, with images.
The readership is significant and powerful on a local level.
National dailies
As the regional papers only run stories of regional importance, the nationals prefer stories that are nationally relevant, meaning issues that impact a large amount of people across the country.
However, they do love stories that are quirky and entertaining and they certainly won’t turn down a moving human interest story that would reach out and engage readers.
These publications are difficult to get into unless you have a relationship with journalists and only give them the exclusive and relevant stories they want.
The readership is phenomenal, though, so it’s worth the effort.
Magazines
Whether trade magazines or glossies – the media connections and correct story angles are what makes these achievable.
Trade magazines need industry insight or industry news on a national scale.
Glossy mags need human interest – so people willing to share their incredible experiences.
Product placement and competitions and promotions are also opportunities in magazines but I’ll devote an entire blog post to that at some point.
Get in touch if you want to bag yourself a media plan and unlock the potential for media exposure so you can get more people reading about what you and your company does!
You could be sitting on tomorrow’s cover story!
