View source for Getting Media Coverage for Your NGO

Gaining media coverage for any organization is important. If all the work that you are doing to make the world a better place is more widely known, then your organization assumedly will be able to accomplish more. Media not only gives your efforts exposure, but it also gives it credibility.  By having a third party, the media, tell your story it adds credibility to what you are trying to do.  And having a good '''media relations strategy''' is increasingly important in today's climate as getting media coverage is becoming increasingly competitive.

This article addresses how NGO leaders can set up their own media relations campaign, or, if they have already got one in progress, provide some advice and insight on how to have a better media relations campaign. 

This article addresses two main categories of the media: paid media and earned media.  Paid media is your TV advertising, your newspaper advertising, and radio commercials.  It is buying time and space to get your message out.  Earned media is press coverage that is earned, not bought.  Earned media is the media covering your story because of your newsworthiness or your compelling message.  You have earned a place in the information marketplace because someone else thought it was important to tell your story.

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==Proactive media campaign== 

How do you get more earned media coverage?  First, you have got to set up and maintain an ongoing, proactive media relations campaign that includes writing press releases, opinion editorials, broadcast advisories, holding press conferences, participating in editorial boards, giving radio and television interviews, producing radio actualities and video news releases, and hosting events, such as panel discussions, to give your organization more visibility.

When you begin your media relations campaign, you really need to know your media.  You need to know who you want to contact and why.  There is a difference between the ''Nation'' magazine and ''National Review'' magazine.  There is a difference in how you may pitch a story to the news desk of the ''New York Times'', and how you may approach the editorial board at ''The Washington Times''.  You do not want to change who you are, or change your message, but your approach may be a bit different.  

Not only do you need to know your media, you need to know your media well.  Identify and target some key reporters that you think can help you on an ongoing basis, that cover your issues specifically.  Know who they are, know what they have written, know their history, and follow them closely on a day-to-day basis if you can.  Once you identify them, give them a call, introduce yourself, and tell them what you do.  Be brief, be concise, to the point, and educational, but ask them a few questions.  Do you prefer fax?  Do you prefer E-mail contact?  Do you prefer a phone call?  Do you prefer an E-mail followed up by a phone call? 

Take very specific notes, because the easier you make it for the reporter to cover your story intact, the more likely they will to do so.  Also, ask them how do they like to cover their events?  Some reporters like to actually go to events and cover it themselves.  Some reporters like to look at studies and pull some things, and others want to do a direct interview with your executive director, or an expert within your organization.

==Press release== 

You also need to understand the news cycle.  Do not call and pitch a story to a newspaper reporter at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.  It sounds kind of obvious, but I can not tell you how often that happens.  Do not call a news producer thirty minutes before the news goes on the air.  It will just hurt your credibility as a news source for them in the future. 

What if you have a big press release, or a press conference that you have scheduled, you have thought a lot about it, you have set this date to have it happen, but there is a major news event that happens: an earthquake, a hurricane, a major political scandal, or, God forbid, another September 11?  Reschedule, because your news will get buried.  

Do not limit yourself to just approaching the media with your information.  On your press release list, make sure you include think tanks, elected officials, diplomats, other leaders in your industry, agencies, commissions, oversight committees, anyone who can help you leverage your message.  A reporter may write about a study from an NGO from another source who saw a study by the NGO.  So do not limit yourself to the media when making contacts.

Another thing to think about that, if you see that the someone, such as an ambassador, is talking about something that you do, or which is related to your organization or industry, send out a quick broadcast advisory reminding them that you have had a study done on this issue, and they can go to the website or wherever to research it.  Just a quick note to the media.

==Getting the media's attention== 

How do you get the media's attention?  When dealing directly with the media, you have to know what you want to say.  You have to be very brief and very concise, find the news hook, and be educational, but really know what you want to say ahead of time.  A reporter, especially in newspapers or television, will get a press release, and they will decide just by looking at the headline and the subheadline whether they are going to read the rest of that release.  Then in that first paragraph, generally, a reporter is going to decide whether or not they are interested in that issue. So have the who, what, where, when, why, and the main lead in that first paragraph to bring the reporter into the rest of the release.  Overall, the release should be catchy, educational, and brief.

Oftentimes, your news by itself may not be enough to get the media's attention.  So tie it into other relevant and timely information, especially those working on international relations.  Unfortunately, in the United States, we do not get a huge readership or audience just on international relations related material alone.  But if you can somehow tie it in to something that directly affects Americans, you are going to get a lot more attention.  September 11th is a perfect example. Most people couldn't even place Afghanistan on the map.  But now, because of the events, a lot of people know much more about Afghanistan, and not only about the war, but about the culture, religion, and so forth. 

When you are contacting the media, remember to persuade and not dictate.  They do not need a whole diatribe about who you are and what you are doing.  You do not need to prove to them that you are incredibly smart, and well educated, and very knowledgeable on this issue.  Know what you want to say, be concise, and be brief.  Most importantly, tell the truth. Nothing will hurt your relationship with the media more than trying to deceive them or trying to prove or say more than you actually know. 

Over time, you will build relationships with certain reporters and I am sure you will get comfortable with them.  Just as a word of caution: you may go off the record or go “on background.”  Just be careful.  I would always act as if you are “on record.”  You can provide information and a background, but do not ever say anything you really do not want the media to know and get out to the public. 

If you don't get media coverage right away, do not fret. If you have a good, on-going media relations campaign, you are informational, you are concise, and the reporter tends to ask some questions but does not write about it, they are putting it in the back of their minds and you may very well become a source for them in the future. 

Partly because the news cycle has 24-hour cable television, news in general has become a lot more competitive, and a lot of times reporters and editors are rushed to give a story, or give an account of the story, without a lot of time to process some the information, and a lot of times they are just not given the information.   Whenever you see something that is not true, or not quite right, or just blatantly slanted politically, give the editor or reporter a call directly. Be brief, be concise, but make your argument. 

When Melissa Hopkins was first began working at ''The Washington Times'', she noticed that many other media organizations were taking the ''Washington Times'' stories and giving themselves credit for breaking a story.  Not because they were mean spirited, it was just that they were not aware of some of the things that the Times was doing, because the Times did not have a very proactive media relations campaign. For example, there was a story some years ago out of the Clinton Administration about a program they created called Citizenship USA, which was a kind of speeding up of the process for immigrants to become legal residents in this country. Many media organizations wrote their stories right out of the press release from the White House, reflecting that this was such a wonderful program.  But one of the ''Washington Times'' reporters wrote a story that said that in fact many thought that it was a political ploy from the Clinton White House to speed up the immigration process because they were registering them to vote as they were becoming legal in hopes that they would vote for the Democratic Party candidates in the next election. 

''National Review'' also wrote about this story, and was critical in the same way that the Times was. It had to be pointed out to them that the ''Washington Times'' actually broke this story first, and they were kind to acknowledge that. That story alone about the immigration process ended up getting attributions all over the place, just because of that clarification.  Thus, if you see something specific that is not quite right, go right the source, and even ask for a correction or a clarification, but stick to the facts.  
  
==References==

The foundation for this article are excerpts from a presentation by Melissa Hopkins at the 2002 WANGO Conference in Washington, D.C. Melissa Hopkins is President of The Hopkins Group, Inc., a communications company based in northern Virginia.