Steve Jobs is a phenomenal marketer. He does a great job making everyone believe that they “need” the latest – but just as he did with the music industry – he is painting print and television media into a corner with the Apple Tablet. Don’t get me wrong – I think he is a genius – but let’s face it – he is a businessman. I’ll admit it – I just bought an iPhone. It is my lifeline to organization and access. I didn’t think I needed it when it was first introduced, and now – I don’t know how I would live without it. What amazes me is that Jobs continually creates products to solve a problem and introduces them as revolutionizing the industry (and his) – and then the players then have no choice but to jump on the bandwagon.
Case in point. Look at what happened to the music industry. Apple sold lots of music but completely destroyed the concept of the album and damaged recording labels’ already deteriorating bottom lines. Does Apple hold the same fate for the media? It seems Jobs is throwing out a life-preserver to print and broadcast into what has been a rough sea with a promise of even a greater storm ahead. Some of the institutional media outlets are not buying it. Some are riding the wave. Others are waiting it out.
Technology has changed everything about journalism. The way news is sourced and reported has changed drastically, and now, how the news is being delivered. I don’t know about you, but I still love sitting in a café on a lazy Saturday morning and reading the newspaper. You know… the kind that took up the entire table – where you actually turned the pages and got black ink on your fingers? And I still rush home to make the six o’clock news. I’m intrigued by Jobs’ latest brain child. I can’t help but wonder if it’s going to be another app that people (and the media) can’t live without.
Once you have told your story in a release and you have been successful in securing an interview, telling the story to a journalist all of a sudden becomes intimidating for most. It’s natural… it’s the fear of the unknown – so I have created some quick tips on interviews by media type. These tips have been published in earlier posts separately, but thought I would string them all together into one post for ease of reference and to help readers understand how to tell their story for print and broadcast media. Let’s start with…
Presentation is key to getting journalists to read your release. As mentioned in my last few posts, the most important component of the news release is that it needs to have news value to the editor and his/her readers. Resist your impulse to sell your company and build your news release one objective and newsworthy section at a time.
Introducing the DIY Release Template 
The key to successful release writing is to ensure it is well written and presented in the standard format journalists require it in. Created by popular demand, we have created the StorylinePR DIY news release template. It will be available for FREE download on January 7th. To gain access to the template, simply email mystory@storylinepr.ca with “DIY news release” in the subject line. We will email you a password to access the template which will guide you through writing process.
As I have mentioned on several occasions, building credibility with the media is as important as creating it for your company, and when it comes to public relations one rarely exists without the other. Working with the media should be a planned, well supported and carefully executed effort.
An experienced journalist can easily identify if your release is intended to sell the reader. While the end result may be to increase product awareness and sell your product or service, your release cannot sound like a television or radio commercial. Distributing a news release that has the look and feel of a “sales pitch” can do more harm than good – and on a permanent basis. Future releases will tend to be ignored – even if it is written in the proper context and is a newsworthy release.
Are you looking at this from a journalist’s perspective?
Everyone has their own reasons for integrating PR into their 2010 goals and it should be part of your overall communications program.
To get started, you need to need to ask yourself 3 questions:
- What do we want to accomplish? Increase understanding, awareness, build support?
- What do we want to say?
- Who do we want to reach?
I get calls from clients all the time asking me what makes a release newsworthy. This is not a subjective question, but rather an objective one – and that’s exactly what you have to be when writing a release about yourself and your company. I featured this on my blog some time ago – and its worthwhile to post again. While the media landscape has changed since the original post, the topics reporters write about and editors look for - has not. This is, by no means, all-encompassing list, but to be used as a general guideline… so here it is again. read more…
I am always optimistic when a new year begins.
For me, January 1st is a time of reflection and renewal. I look back at 2009 with a smile and think about the many challenges and accomplishments. I also take time to think about what I want to achieve in the new year, and for me, the underpinning goal is to challenge myself to out do, out think and out perform the year before. It’s like opening a new book called “opportunity”. Its pages are blank and I hold the pen. So here we are, starting with chapter one – New Years Day!
My personal wish for all my loyal readers in 2010…
- 12 months of happiness
- 52 weeks of fun
- 365 days of success
- 8,760 hours of good health
- 525,600 minutes of good luck
- 31,536,000 seconds of pure joy
May we all continue to learn, grow and share.
‘Tis the season and I’m feeling festive. In the spirit of giving, I wanted to come up with a promotion by giving away something that will be of value to my Ottawa based followers through my latest obsession, twitter. How does a free storylinePR traditional writing and distribution media package worth approximately $950 sound?
Social media is most certainly changing traditional PR. Remember the days when you had a breaking news story and all you had to do was find a phone booth to call it in to a news desk? OK, truth be known, me neither, but that’s the way it used to happen. Today, the way journalists’ source and report the news is changing. 
- There are now social media networks dedicated to journalists and sources, providing the opportunity to find hundreds of potential leads for stories.
- Citizens are being engaged by journalists to help them collect data. With the use of social networks like twitter, the word is spread instantly.
- The public can now comment on stories, providing feedback and opinions on blogs that influence how a story is perceived.
- Stories are now told in real-time, across multiple platforms, with the content flowing on social networks at lightening speed.
