What Do the Media Want?

 

One of the questions I hear most often from people who do communications for non-profit groups is: What does the media want?

The question usually arises after someone has shared about how they sent a press release to the media, but got no response. 

Why didn’t the media call back? What did I do wrong? What are they looking for?

When it comes to answering those questions, who better to ask than the media themselves?

Over my years doing media relations, I’ve have asked some reporters exactly those questions, and others. Here’s what they told me.

(For the record, the people who I asked are a TV news director, a TV news anchor, a radio show host, radio reporter and two print reporters.)

1. They want you to know they are very, very busy.

The media is very short-staffed today. Fewer and fewer reporters and producers have to produce more and more content. They can hardly keep up.

“I get 300 e-mails a day, all competing for my attention.”  

“We are short-staffed, and resources are in short supply. It’s insane in the newsroom, there’s little time to think, everything is on the fly.”

“I can get hundreds of press releases a day in my e-mail, and when I'm scanning through them, they can all start to look the same.”

2. They want you to send them shorter and clearer press releases.

With so little time, reporters don’t have time to read lengthy press releases. At best, they will give each e-mail 30 seconds. If you haven’t grabbed their attention by then, too bad.

“Don’t send us a long press release—we won’t read it. Make it fast and clear and idiot-proof. Tell me why I should care. Capture my attention.”

“Make sure press releases contain all the essential facts—put them right up there, right at top, right in our face. Don’t make us sift through lots of information to get to the who, what, where and when. It’s not our job to decipher what you are trying to say—that’s your job.”

“Your press release should surprise me, tell me something I haven’t heard before, something that matters to people where they live, that’s relevant. And make it short.”

3. They want the press release to contain news that matters to their audience.

The first question a reporter asks when getting a press release is: “Who cares?” If your press release doesn’t show why your story matters to their readers, listeners or viewers, they won’t follow-up.

“Tell us why your story is important to our readers, why they will care.”

“When we get a press release, we ask: ‘Is this new? Is it surprising? Is it something the larger community needs to hear about?’”

4. They want to talk to real people.

They don’t want just facts and figures. They want people, especially someone who is affected by the story, someone who feels it in a personal way.

“Give us people to interview, not just facts and figures. We need someone to make it real for the viewer. Don’t send someone to talk about MS—send us someone with MS who is affected by the story.”

“We want to tell stories through people involved in the story, people who are living the story. Give us someone with experience in the story, to make it live.”

5. If you want to get on TV, they need action.

TV is visual. So if you want to get on TV, you need to think visually. Meetings are not visual, so don’t give TV reporters a BOPSA: Bunch Of People Sitting Around.

“Think visually. If you are inviting us to an event, hold it in a place that reinforces the message. If it’s about saving the environment, show us some trees.”

“TV needs pictures. Think about how to make an event visual. Tell us what we can see.”

“We can’t show research. People tune out strings of numbers.”

6. They want non-profit communicators to understand their world.

If you are going to do well at your job, you need to—at a minimum—read, listen to and watch your local media. (You’d be surprised at how many communicators don’t do that.) This will help you understand what the various media outlets like to report about, and how they like to do it.

You also need to find out who reports about what at each outlet—what beats they cover, and who covers them. And you need to understand their deadlines.

“The media relations people we like the best are people who want to know how they can help us, who understand our deadlines and needs.”

“Pay attention to the media you want to deal with. Know what we cover, and how we cover it—and what we have covered in the past.”

“Have a good understanding of what the niche is of the reporter or media outlet you are trying to reach, or how they frame stories. I don't know how many amazing story ideas were given to me that I simply couldn't use because it didn't fit our mandate.”

In future posts, I’ll write more about how to catch the attention of the media, and how to work with reporters. But for now, there you have it—straight from the media’s mouth.