In a highly competitive media space, with many companies, individuals and organisations all vying for journalists’ attention, it’s important to understand what it is they actually want in order to ensure you provide it. So, once you’re clear on what your objectives are, it’s worthwhile considering how you can present it to the media to have the best chance of your story getting air-time.

So, what does the media want? Here’s a start:

Stories that resonate with their audience – at the end of the day, commercial media is a business. The more eyeballs they can get on a story, the higher their audience numbers, the more advertising revenue they can generate. Media outlets know their audiences well, and they’ll know what’s likely to resonate with their audience, and what won’t. So, you need to consider how to present your story, and which media outlet it’s best suited to.

A strong news angle – it might sound obvious, but a story has to have a strong news angle, or hook, for the media to consider putting it in a news bulletin.

Amazing images or graphics – media can write an entire story around an amazing image or vision. If you have some impressive graphics or images to accompany your story, it can elevate your pitch significantly and lead to far more, and more prominent, coverage than words alone.

A story that’s exclusive, unique or new – media still value exclusives, even in a market where one news outlet is dominant. If your story is unique and has never been told before, it will be considered more newsworthy. Your first announcement will generally get far more coverage than subsequent announcements.

Authentic talents and case studies – in order to resonate with their audiences, media need authentic, articulate talents (spokespeople) to tell the story. Media training can ensure your spokesperson delivers the company’s key messages succinctly. Case studies of ‘ordinary’ people also resonate with audiences, as they can bring to life the human impacts of any story.

The whole package – with fewer journalists, and more demands on their time, the more you can package up a story for the media, the more chance you’ll have of your story getting up. You need to package up all the above elements and present them in an accessible format – usually a media release with a strong news angle that includes quotes from your spokesperson, great images/graphics in a readable format and details of a case study to be the ‘face’ of the issue. Also make sure that you, your spokesperson and your case study are available on the day you pitch the story in case the journalist wants to do a follow-up interview or get more information.

For more details on media training for your spokespeople, and our media relations services, please contact ReGen Strategic.

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