CHAPTER 2

How to Be Newsworthy and Fake News

Your news story is the most important part of a strong PR campaign and is also known as your “pitch” to the media. It is essential to get this right, as your story will determine the success of your PR campaign.

There are quite a few things to think about and work out when you have a news story, but the first one would be to decide what makes news? As not everything is “newsworthy.”

What Makes News Checklist

This following checklist will help you make that call:

1. Timing—You want to work ahead and plan your stories.

   If your own news story can ride on a current news topic, then you potentially have strong news story and these days we can see what is trending on Twitter, which clearly shows what is “news in real time.” This also means that as consumers we are used to receiving constant updates, and because there is so much news about, old news is quickly discarded. Ensure your news is timely.

2. Significance—The number of people affected by the story is important. If it affects a community, a sector, a vast number of people that means more of us will be interested to read the story and as a result the media will be interested to run the story.
3. Location—Stories that happen near to us have more significance. The closer the story to home, the more newsworthy it is. However, location does not have to mean geographical distance, as stories from countries with which we have a particular bond or similarity have the same effect.
4. Celebrities—We are living in a celebrity-led culture and famous people get more coverage just because they are famous! If you have a local celebrity or a global star endorsing your product or attending your event, the media will be interested. It could even be a quote or message of support. This is why lots of charities try to get well-known names on board as supporters, because it helps make their cause more attractive to the press.
5. Human Interest—This one is a particularly good one for small businesses; a news story with a human interest angle is always attractive for the media, because as we know, we all love a story, as they appeal to our emotions. They evoke responses, such as happiness or sadness, and these kinds of stories are not time-sensitive because they do not date as quickly. Television chat shows, news programs, and radio like good strong human interest stories.

   However, before you put a human interest news story forward, and if using a case story, always ask the person’s permission first—that is if they are happy for their personal story to be sent to the media. I have known small businesses who had great human interest stories sourced from their client base and decided to pitch these stories to their local news, without asking their clients if they were happy to speak to the press. Needless to say, this became messy.

6. Launch of Products—You might have a product that you are bringing to market that is newsworthy in itself because it is eco-friendly, innovative, and different than anything else. Make sure you have a few samples that you can send to the press.
7. Surveys/Reports and Books—If you have commissioned a report or have some strong data that is revealing new findings, then this could be newsworthy. Again, the report needs to be accurate and timely. Sometimes the media are interested in reports or data in advance of their official publication dates.
8. High-Quality Images—Always have good images to go with your story, which should also be of high quality, so they can be reproduced online and in the print media.1 Clearly label your photo and identify those in the photos from left to right. Again, check that everyone in the picture is happy for the photo to be circulated to the press. It is also important to credit the photographer who has taken the photo, particularly if you have used a professional photographer.
9. Events—Annual events, conferences, and launches can be newsworthy, especially if you have interesting keynote speakers and high-profile guests. It is important that you contact the media well in advance, to ensure that they can get the event in their daily schedule diary. Offering free press passes to paid events is the norm and reserving their seats at the event is protocol.
10. Fact Check—Always make sure your facts are correct, spellings of people’s names are accurate, and that any information in the news stories such as contact details are all on point. There is nothing worse than getting that story published, only to see glaring errors within the article.

Local or National Media?

I discuss this in more detail in Chapters 8 and 9, but the top line is, once you have worked out if your story is newsworthy, you then need to decide if the story is for local or the national media; and that is based on impact. Announcements that have local impact are newsworthy for local media outlets. If your story is going to impact people nationwide, then you will pitch your story to the national press. If your news story is related to your trade/sector and will be something your peers will want to know, then this is a good story for the trade press.

Here are some pointers:

• If you are a human resource (HR) consultant and you have written a book about leadership in the workplace, then contacting the HR media is the perfect fit for this story. Or if you are a Bitcoin organization then the financial press and financial journalists would be the media for you to contact.
• Depending on the impact of your story, you may want to consider contacting the news desks or news editors within the media as impact stories can be time-sensitive. Every media outlet, whether TV, radio, or national or local papers, has a news desk and an editor.
• Do not forget to contact online influencers, Instagrammers, and bloggers who may be interested in your story, especially if you are launching a product. They have a big reach and following that can be just as effective as the traditional media of TV, radio, and print.
• However, sometimes with the best will in the world and all the calls, the media may not be interested in your story—and that is just because they get so many news stories every day, every hour, every minute. This does not mean that you cannot do something with your story, and it is a lost opportunity, because you can use social media to get your story out. Apart from sharing the story on your social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, you can also write your own news story as a blog post and upload on it on your website. You can share it online and amplify your own news story by using “hashtags” (e.g., #theprknowedgebook) and tagging those influencers who you think will be interested in your news story into your post. Influencers include audiences such as your peers, industry experts, clients, and relevant media.

Depending on how well your story does online, sometimes the mainstream media may pick up the story and decide to feature the story. You could also create your own video or podcast.

Fake News

I do not think I could write this chapter without including something about the phenomena of fake news, which mostly happens online. These are news or stories on the Internet that are not true. From Russian “bots” to charges of fake news, headlines are awash with stories about dubious information going viral. Fake news spreads much faster than real news; it is much easier for these stories to spread quickly, which can be a problem. Nowadays, it is easier than it used to be to edit photos and create fake websites and stories that look realistic.

What makes a news story fake? Well, that is tough one to answer, but essentially it is a story that cannot be verified. It either does not contain any links to its sources or, if there are links, they stay within the domain or send you to articles that are not relevant.

Fake news is a problem for different reasons, but mainly because it takes away from real, authentic news. It is also a problem because it can make people believe things that are completely untrue and is peddling lies. These stories tend to play on our emotions; they make us angry, happy, or scared.

When people publish something without checking that it is completely accurate, it can make people have less trust in the media, as well as make everyone believe something that might be untrue—and people only tend to share things that they agree with. So, if people are sharing a lot of fake news and lots of people believe it, it is easy to get sucked into a bubble that is actually completely different to the real world—and a long way from the truth.

Lazy journalism can also contribute to fake news and stories that may have some truth to them, but they are not completely accurate. This is because the people writing them do not check all of the facts before publishing the story, or they might exaggerate some of it.

Fake news is becoming more and an problem, particularly for brands, as fake news can affect reputations. It is important that we all become more discerning about what we are reading and sharing. It does not take too much imagination to see a scenario where your brand becomes the victim.

Equally, brands should take responsibility for what they can control. We need to be vigilant and on top of where our brand content is being placed. Media brands need to put reclaiming and maintaining consumer trust at the top of their agenda.

Summary

There are lots of things to consider as a business or organization when you want to make “news” and the checklist in this chapter is a useful aid, especially when it comes to who you should be contacting, that is whether it is national or local media. Just on that, do not forget how powerful and supportive your local press can be. So, with your news story defined, you will need to send your story out via something called a press release, which is unique to PR. In Chapter 3, we learn what is exactly a press release and importantly, how to write one, a good one!

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