WHEN IS A STORY NOT A STORY?

Today I'm sharing with you some advice around what makes a story for the media - in this case particularly local media and some business media so that you don't make an absolute prat of yourself trying to pitch stories which are never going to be suitable.

Sending stories to the media which are non-stories - whether you are doing this yourself, via a team member or through a PR partner - actually will damage your relationship with the media and it will do nothing to uplift your reputation positively.

Indeed it can absolutely damage your reputation as, in the UK, journalists, editors etc will talk to each other and they will share stories of terrible press releases and you do risk being actually seen as a 'joke'. Believe me when I say that some PR companies foist this on their clients because they fall into two big traps:

*Assuming they can dictate to the media what a story should be - because it interests them and is important to them.

*Pandering to a client and writing something up as a press story even if they know that it's never going to 'cut the mustard'.

I cannot tell you the number of times, journalists have bantered about appalling attempts at telling stories, clueless PR people and supreme arrogance when it comes to getting media coverage for free.

How the media chooses stories:

The media's aim is to provide interesting stories, insight, news and education to the audience it serves and that is what it will do. Its audience will be different and varied and because a media outlet will cover a whole community - be that a geographical community or a sector or even both - that will be its one focus.

Due to the fact that the media not only builds its own community, it attracts its own community - it's power lies in that. By its nature, a media outlet, in most cases, will have a much bigger audience than you because its one focus is on that audience, serving that audience. Exactly the same applies to anyone who relies for income and traction from an audience eg. a successful social media influencer.

There will also be a strict protocol between what is considered, by the editor or publisher, to be editorial (the stories chosen for interest) and advertorial (what someone pays for) and even with the latter stories can be rejected because they simply don't fit the brief or the theme. Don't think it doesn't happen, it absolutely does.

The media is rapidly changing around payment models which I'll address on another occasion however there is always a balance to be had between editorial and advertorial. After all, how many people actually sit down and read a magazine which is just display ads? We read and consume stories all of the time. An editor forgets this at their peril.

Therefore flinging any old thing at the media, especially via a database distribution service to 100s of journalists, is in most cases a supreme waste of time and has a negative effect on your business/personal reputation. It might make your life easier, it might make the life of your PR partner easier but it will not achieve the kind of long term relationships you might want to build.

I'm inspired to write this piece because, as a PR/journalist hybrid, I've this week received a press release which is an absolute classic example of this. In this case it's a press release sent via a PR company.

The story? A company I'm not going to name except to say it's in the financial sector has renewed its lease on premises which are going to be refurbished.

Yippee! Ask yourself this - are you excited by that story? Does that make you want to read on?

I'd be staggered if this story was used as editorial anywhere though it might be used if this company as an advertorial deal with a media partner - then, having paid for space, it could fill that space with its own news.

I cannot believe that this PR person did not say to this company - that's not a story for the media. I would have.

Don't get me wrong. This doesn't mean it cannot be used but, for me, I'd be looking at other ways of telling that story which is exciting for the company yet not for a wider audience. Here are the ways:

*Do you have an advertorial relationship with any press? ie. you pay to take regular space. That would be one avenue. You could even do a 'coming up' and then a 'ta da it's all done' later.

*Do you have a newsletter for your clients/fans? Then tell that story there, that way at least they will know if you have to move to a temporary space for refurbishment - or if you don't, they will know if they visit it might be a bit chaotic. Again you can do a follow up story around 'look at our renewed space!'

*Do you have social media output? This could be a more long form story to show the changes from day to day and week to work.

*Do you write blogs? Let's share this change over time via a blog.

Do you think your local newspaper, radio station, business magazine will share a story about you renewing the lease on an office you already occupy? it's a milestone but not a media-worthy milestone. Therefore it would have to be a very slow news day/week/month for that to even be considered.

A bad press release also contains:

That was not the only problem though with this particular press release. Another major problem for me is that it doesn't actually involve a company based in Wiltshire - it's from a totally different place so even more irrelevant to me.

Therefore that tells me I'm on a list somewhere, and it's sent to me via a database because I'm on a list. Not even a tiny bit of research has been done around who or what stories I write with my 'pure' journalist hat on.

And even better, there was a photograph of two people not named, not looking at the camera but looking at some plans wearing hard hats.

At a pinch maybe I could use that if the story was significantly of interest. it's in colour and it's landscape format. However the resolution is poor, under 1mg which is okay for online media yet too small for more traditional hard copy media.

These are such basic things for the media and every good PR person should know this. One positive though at least this non story wasn't dressed up in a pdf with logos plastered over it. Always a silver lining eh?