How to Generate Earned Media

Introduction

Favorable media coverage can greatly enhance your effectiveness in delivering key messages to target audiences. This section quickly summarizes a variety of earned media tactics you can use to help publicly communicate your statewide plan.

Opportunities

News Releases, Advisories and Announcements

The key to generating good press coverage is to give the media something simple and news-worthy to cover through regular news releases, advisories and announcements about any significant story or development that will be of interest to the media's readers/viewers/listeners in your area.

Examples might include: major mobilizations and crackdowns, special emphasis or focus around key holidays and special events; new national or state statistical or survey information; official proclamations; new programs, approaches, or marketing techniques being used to reach and influence your target audiences, etc.

A release is simply your story written up in a journalistic form. On receiving your release, reporters or news editors will first glance at the headline or the lead (the opening paragraph) of the release to get the gist of your story. If it fails to attract their attention or interest, then the release will get discarded. The most effective releases are written to attract attention, seek to convey only one central message or point, and include just enough appropriate information to support that message.

To generate an attention-getting release that will stand out from the hundreds of others editors see daily, make sure you story is timely, unique, interesting, informational, unexpected or even a little controversial. Make sure it speaks to the interests of the editor's readers/listeners/viewers. And make sure it always covers the journalist's "Five W's": Who, What, When, Where, Why, and whenever possible, the "How" as well. Be sure to cover all essential facts, but keep your releases simple and succinct.

Unlike more fully developed news releases, media advisories are sent out in advance of events, announcements and press conferences to provide just enough information about the Five W's to invite and facilitate press attendance and coverage at the event. Advisories and releases should always carry a contact name and phone number as a reporter's point of contact for questions and follow up.

News Conferences

Consider a news conference to announce important events, results or achievements. The press conference has an air of importance and credibility because it uses a news format to present important information. Yet, arrange a press conference only when your news is of significant importance, likely to generate sufficient media interest, or is visually interesting resulting in better television coverage.

The goal of a press conference is to bring all of the key players together to publicize your announcement, to share dramatic visuals, and to deal with any questions for follow-up at the same time. But organizing such an event can be very time-consuming, so if issuing a news release can do the job just as well, then opt for the news release

News Interviews, Editorial Boards, TV and Radio Talk Shows

Inviting members of the media in for one-on-one interviews, going to a newspaper for a desk-side briefing of a top reporter or with an entire editorial board (a group interview with perhaps a number of editors and reporters), or scheduling a local TV or radio talk show interview can be very effective ways of explaining and promoting more complex announcements, trends or stories.

Reporters or interviewers generally ask questions to get the interviewees to respond in an interesting, illuminating, lively or even entertaining way. Consider in advance how to respond to all of the basic or difficult questions you expect to encounter and practice your answers. Identify your core messages and concentrate on getting those points across. Think through the real "news angle" of your message by putting yourself in the minds of the media outlet's readers, viewers or listeners. Even if the questioner tends to stray, try to reinterpret any difficult of "off-the-wall" questions to get your point across.

Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor

Another very effective way to generate press interest about key initiatives and announcements is to submit a guest editorial, commentary, or a letter to the editor to newspapers for publication. NOTE: these typically need to be directed to the newspaper's opinion page editor and not the standard news reporters you may usually deal with. Strong Op-Ed pieces or Letters to the Editor need to be informal, persuasive and entertaining – but most importantly, succinct and to the point.

Feature Stories and Testimonials

Life-and-death highway safety stories touch real lives through heroism and tragedy. The news media love to share these kinds of human-interest stories with their audiences.

Tastefully and sensitively working with law enforcement and emergency response officials who are working on the "front lines," as well as with the family members of crash victims, or highlighting lessons learned by crash survivors, all represent powerful human interest perspectives important to the news media. Do not overlook the opportunity to humanize your news story, announcement, or press conference with these examples as you develop your earned media plans.

Generating Media Coverage

There is not much magic about attracting media coverage. As long as you have something newsworthy to cover, building coverage simply requires time, work and diligence to reach out to and follow-up on the telephone with the targeted reporters.

Make enough calls in advance of your event or announcement to identify and build the right press list and contact information for those reporters most interested or appropriate for your story or issue. Find out when and how they prefer to receive information from you.  Learn and respect their deadlines. And once you send them your information, work the telephone to follow up to make sure you know the received it, to see if they have questions, and to ask for their coverage.

Good examples for each of the above tactics – prepared so that you can tailor and localize them for your own use -- can be retrieved from www.TrafficSafetyMarketing.gov.