by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
Owner:
After: Once you are yesterday's news, it is much more difficuh to draw press attention, but there are times?an ongoing court case, for instance?when you might really like to stay in the headlines. Keep in touch with reporters who write sympathetic or at least intelligent stories. Most especially keep up good relationships with the alternative press, who will often be much more receptive to covering something without waiting for a sensational news hook?that means alternative newspapers, public access TV talk shows, Indymedia, low-powered FM community radio stations, and outlets that serve a special community (African-American or Spanish-language newspapers, for instance).
Mainstream Media 360
It's worth the time it takes to put together a good press contact hst and keep it current. Include on the list all the television stations, daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, and a selection of radio stations (especially NPR stations and coEege radio stations) in your area. Look in the yellow pages for listings, then check the websites of places you want to reach. Most of them will have directions on how to send in press releases; put the phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses they provide on your list. Familiarize yourself with daily newspapers, and note the names of reporters who cover the beats that might be useful to you (environmental, court reporting, etc.); look for regular columnists who might be interested in the things you're interested in. Newspaper websites will list email addresses and phone numbers for individual reporters and editors. If you can't find all the information you need online, call and ask.
Press Contact List
Reporters get dozens of press releases every day. Yours will catch their attention if it is clear and easy to read and has something to say. Try to think like a journahst when you write your release: start with what, who, where, and when, and then give a clear and concise why. Leave the inflammatory rhetoric, wild unsupported claims, and angry rants for later?^if you can't entirely let them go, you can put them in as a direct quote. Here's the formula:
1. In the upper left-hand comer write for immediate release, and underneath write any contact information you can give?name, phone number, email address, website-Leave this information ofl'only if you want strict anonymity.
2. Give the release a title that sounds like a newspaper headline: conference on
POLICE BRUTALITY PLANNED FOR APRIL 3 Or PROTESTERS TARGET BIOTECH COMPANY. Keep
it short, simple, and informative.
3. Load as much information as you can into the first paragraph: "Antiwar activists from around the state will gather on the State House lavm on Saturday, February 15 to
The Press Release
Mainstream Media }6i
You can get free press passes
to attend concerts and similar
events simply by approaching the
promoters as a representative of
the media-?you'll probably get
more privileged treatment than any
of the paying customers. A press
pass might also help you get past
security, or could bolster your cover
story if you need to cross national
borders in an emergency.
Mainstream Medici
j62
protest the Bush administration's poUcies in Iraq. The demonstration, which has been endorsed by X, Y, and Z, will begin at io:oo a.m. and will include a march down Main Street followed by an open forum. Organizers are predicting that the protest, part of a worldwide day of action, will draw a crowd of several thousand demonstrators ..."
