Tips to Get Your Segment on the Ten O'clock News
If you're pitching ideas to local broadcasters, practice thinking like them. Their universes can be as large - even as small - as the communities in which they work. International issues often take a back seat to the political, medical, commercial, consumer and cultural news cropping up in their own backyards.
When it comes to media relations, it appears that no one in this profession is more pressed for time than the people who deliver to you the local news.
Nothing is worse than a great topic half-done and peppered with bad grammar, says WMAR-TV Baltimore environmental specialist Scott Broom.
"The worst example of this, and I get a few, was a story surrounding insurance-driven road rage reduction tips," Broom says. "The focus was not clear, it was poorly written (including some profanity) and I had to restructure, rework and add research to make it usable."
"The only reason this stayed on my desk was because road rage as a topic was something I was going to eventually cover," Broom said.
Then 20 minutes before the evening news, a story fell through and Broom had to polish the clumsy road rage piece in time to put it on the air.
If the story pitch had been well-presented from the get go, it might have been given greater prominence and better play, Broom said.
To help you work with broadcasters, determine what they need to know, not what's "nice" to know, and make sure it's professionally packaged and well written.
That's one way to ensure that your lead doesn't end up in the circular file.
Selling to broadcast media is much different then pitching to print. Had the PR agency done it's work by taking some key steps, they could have met with much greater success.
From Weather to the World - What People Watch
"For example, today, everyone watches the news for weather information," says Broom. "If you can use that as an element of promotion, you definitely get air time."
If the PR agency for an automaker is seeking air time, for instance, an effective pitch might focus on how the car handles in bad weather.
David Warschawski, president of Warschawski PR, agrees that a creative twist tends to increase your chances of a digital win.
In a campaign promoting new phone technology on the 120th anniversary of the invention of telephone, his firm employed the great-granddaughters of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson.
Using Net2Phone which allows users to answer calls from a computer, Bell's great-granddaughter was shown sitting in a trendy New York cafe calling Watson's great-granddaughter, who answered the call on a computer while sitting at another trendy cafe in London.
"Beyond being creative, we also made the package as complete as possible for the station, leaving them little left to do," says Warschawski. The more complete the material, the easier it is to get scheduled for the air time, Broom agrees.
Mark Eber, VP of Imre & Associates PR, concurs. "I try and do as much of the producer's job for them giving them a complete package deal whenever I can."
(Scott Broom, 410/372-2575; Mark Eber, 410/821-8220; David Warschawski, 410/318-8200)
Broadcast Pitch Tips
- Find a local angle to your story for the market in which you are making your pitch.
- The story should be new or present a new angle - don't pitch stale ideas or overexposed story lines.
- Story angles should include an element of urgency or conflict.
- Health stories are hot, particularly women's health stories, so find an angle.
- Personal safety angles - injury prevention, crime, consumer liability - also stand a good chance of making it to the air.
- Think visuals and explain how the story can be shown on the air.
Source: Scott Broom