Regional Media Advice

Local newspapers, radio stations and TV programmes are often overlooked and undervalued but provide excellent opportunities for creating positive profile within your local community. Here are some tips for generating regional media coverage.

• Timing is everything - If you're too early or too late you could miss out. Find out the deadlines of the media contact you want to target and work to them, their deadlines are not negotiable. Give plenty of notice when inviting a local journalist to your event, they will have a full diary.
• Location, location! - Find the right newspaper, radio station or TV network for your exact local community. Targeting a media contact too far from where your organisation is based will be a waste of resources. Regional media will only cover what is directly relevant to their audience.
• It's all in a name - Make sure the details of your event go to the right person. Call a newspaper or radio station prior to sending information out to see who it should go to. Most will have someone who covers community activity, education, business and numerous other areas.
• Make it relevant - Draw on other stories of local interest or things happening in the media. Tailoring an event to meet the aims of some recently publicised national policy or local issue will make it significant to your own community.
• Great expectations - Even the best executed media campaign can be ignored because of too many stories and too little time. If something more important comes up, for example a fire or severe road accident, your story could be dropped, no matter how great your event is.
• Have a back up plan - Take photographs yourself and get some quotes from participators in your event. Then make sure you get them to the media as soon as possible, old news is no news. Use e-mail, phone or fax to let the media know, post will be too slow.