|
We receive many good news releases at Newswise, and in this report we will highlight the work of one contributor who sets consistently high standards. Lee Siegel (University of Utah) submits interesting stories that consistently achieve excellent results in the media. If we examine these stories as a group, we can identify a number of "best practices" that have likely contributed to their success.
His most recent story—Killer Dinosaurs Turned Vegetarian—is a good example. This generated stories that remained on the Google News top stories page for two consecutive days, and resulted in more than 400 links.
We interviewed Siegel to identify and explore his "best practices".
"First," he emphasized, "find a good story. Then do everything to issue the news release in the right way. That means getting it out the door with a catchy headline and lead, in clear layperson's language and as early as allowed by embargo rules of the journal that is publishing the study you are writing about."
 Concentrate on the big stories
The major principles to getting it right involve the basic skills Siegel developed as a science reporter at the Associated Press (AP) and the Salt Lake Tribune.
"It's important to cover local stories, but if it's a big story with good potential for national and international coverage, I drop everything else and get cracking."
Write short, catchy leads and titles
Build and respect the relationship
Siegel also bases his writing and distribution of news on his knowledge of reporters and on his objective of always cultivating a more powerful professional relationship with them.
"When I was an AP reporter, I would receive 300 to 500 pieces of mail per week. I took them home at night. I grew to appreciate people whom I could count on to send me good stories. You could count on that from some institutions, and you could predict that others would send everything, which was usually nothing. I never figured out why some universities sent stories about new dorms to a national science writer. Now that I'm in public relations, I send local news to my local list. To national reporters, I try to send only good stories."
Maximize packaging (embargoes)
Similarly, Siegel understands reporters' deadline pressures and attempts to maximize their convenience.
"I respect the embargo guidelines of each journal, and try to get the story out as early as possible and allowed by the specific journal."
"You have to find the story early," adds Siegel. "The journals don't let you know early enough. I was working on the recent dinosaur story two weeks before Nature notified me. I was at a seminar on another subject that was hosted by a co-author of the dinosaur study. He just happened to mention it to me."
Work with the source
In addition, Siegel attempts to pass his communications skills to the sources with whom he is working, and to cultivate in them a winning formula for dealing with the media.
"I review drafts of my news releases with scientists whose work I am writing about. I make any needed corrections. But I stand up for the story when scientists want to reword releases by adding incomprehensible jargon. I beat them up verbally until they speak English. I'm not shy. I speak my mind. I tell them when their research is simply not news. I do that a lot when asked to issue news releases on grants and awards, which get a tiny amount of local coverage at best."
"They end up being happy with the news release about their research and with the results," Siegel concludes. "When a researcher gets loads of publicity, his/her colleagues know about it."
"I coach the researchers on dealing with reporters. I hit hard on the need to reply quickly, and urge them to pay attention to the priorities of dealing with major media outlets."
This merely touches on some major points about communicating with the media, and is not a comprehensive manual on writing news releases. However, these points contain a quick overview of a successful media relations strategy.
An important concluding observation is that these strategies are effective. A brief look at the report on clips linked from the sidebar above demonstrate the outstanding attention Siegel's stories received by veteran and well known science writers around the globe. The most recent story includes some active links in major media outlets, with bylines.
|
Printer-friendly version