1.1: Why This Book

Suppose four years ago you had opened a small brewpub, a small place where you brewed beer, served it to customers along with “pub food” and enabled customers to fill “growlers,” essentially large jugs with which you can use to take your beer home.  Business was good, and a couple of years ago, you made arrangements with a contract bottler to bring a mobile bottling line to your brewery and to bottle some of your beer which you then sold through local food outlets and taverns.  Business got even better.  In fact, it got so good that your little brewpub couldn’t keep up with demand.  So, you decided to build a larger facility with more brewing capacity, an in-house bottling line, and a larger tasting room.  The state’s economic development fund even gave you a tax break to help cover the cost.

You’d want to tell people in the community about it, wouldn’t you?

Or, suppose you run a local arts center in Iowa, and next weekend is going to be a really special event – the U.S. Marine Band, the “President’s Own,” will be performing on your stage.  You’d want to tell your community about the upcoming performance, wouldn’t you?

Or, suppose you run a law firm, and you just won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against a major corporation  You’d want to tell the world about it – the people in your community, other lawyers, the people in the plaintiff’s community, about it, wouldn’t you?

Or, suppose you ran Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1987.  For the very first time by anyone, anywhere, Dr. Ben Carson had separated infant conjoined twins.  You’d want the world to know about it, wouldn’t you, because it would enhance the reputation of Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Or, suppose you run an automobile dealership, and you promote someone, or you hire someone.  You’d want others in your community to know about that, wouldn’t you?   

All of these situations are newsworthy.  But except for Johns Hopkins Hospital, it is by no means certain the other business would have a public relations person on the staff.  Getting the word out might be up to the owner, or general manager, or perhaps a secretary. 

Even if you retain a public relations firm, you need to know enough to be able to approve – or disapprove – the proposed news release when they bring it to you.  A news release is the usual way news media expect to receive information that people hope to have published.  Whether you are an entrepreneur or an experienced public relations practitioner, your success in getting the word out may very well depend upon the news release you send to the media. 

But, you may ask, do you really need to rely on the media – on newspapers, on radio, and on television?  Won’t social media let you get the word out just as effectively?  Yes, you need the media.  And no, social media doesn’t get the word out as effectively.  Only one-in-four U.S. adults get local news from either social media (25%) or websites and apps (26%).  Among the nine types of providers, social media stands out as a primary access point for only one: online forums or discussion groups such as community Facebook groups or Nextdoor.  What are the odds that any of the examples cited above would be seen in a community Facebook group or on Nextdoor?  Here’s the most telling statistic:  Of those who get local news from daily newspapers, only 13% access them through social media, compared with 30% who primarily use websites, apps, or email – and 54% who primarily use print newspapers

            The same study found that of those who prefer to get their local news online, nearly twice as many prefer to get it from a news website or app as from social media.

(Pew, 2019).

            This book will teach you how to write news that gets published in media that matters – whether that media is a news website, a newspaper, TV, social media or radio. The principles it teaches are applicable whether one works as a public relations professional or one is a small entrepreneur trying to get noticed on your own. 

 

 

References

Pew Research Center (2019, March 26).  Overall, social media plays a moderate role in local news.