Guest Author - Sonja Meyer

Wouldn't an upbeat newspaper article about your business, organization or school do wonders to bring you more customers, members or students?

The problem is how do you convince newspaper editors that your company or organization is worth some positive news column inches?

Writing a catchy press release is a good place to start. The problem is, too many releases are tossed into circular files in newsrooms every day because they just don't fit what editors are looking for.

Here are five ways to make sure your release stands a chance of getting a second read and consideration for a follow-up phone call:

1. Lead with NEWS and make it interesting to the general circulation the newspaper serves. What makes your business, organization or school different and thereby worthy of news as opposed to a referral to the advertising department? Are you the first in town to offer a leading-edge technological service? Is your organization starting a new program to help single moms with childcare while they go back to work? Are your university researchers hot on the trail of a new possible cure for breast cancer? These are all examples of news that people will sit down to read and editors will assign to reporters to write.

2. Stick to the facts, not the hype. Don't sell yourself short; go ahead and blow your own horn, but back it up with facts. Don't just say your business is the best thing since apple pie. Explain why. Add a fact sheet with bulleted items backing up your release, if possible. And leave out tons of superlatives and filler words that do nothing but pad your piece with a lot of hot air that editors will, perhaps rightly, cast off as much ado about nothing.

3. Keep it short. Try to keep your press release to one to three pages. A one-page fact sheet and a photograph or chart can be added. Editors don't have a lot of time and often will make up their mind by the time they get to the bottom of the first page they see. If they detect a possible story, they or their reporters will ask you for more details.

4. Read the newspaper and see how it handles various types of news. Is there a business section with its own editor or are business stories incorporated into general news pages by a city editor? Is there an education editor and page devoted to university and school news? Is it a small newspaper that rarely devotes a lot of space to long business stories but offers a weekly business briefs column where a half-page press release might be polished and run in short? If you can't figure it out, call the newsroom and ask.

5. Make it easy for reporters to do their work. List your name, title, phone number, e-mail address and best time to reach you, and check for typos to make sure all this basic information is right. If possible, list at least two other contact people and information for contacting them. Include background narratives about your business, organization or school. If you have a secretary, tell her to pass media calls right through; reporters work on deadline and need to reach you as soon as possible in their work days. Be willing to give reporters answers to questions you might not anticipate. Accommodate their requests for on-site tours or photo assignments.

If you take all these five steps and still don't get a response from your newspaper, politely call and find out why. Ask what their policies are for handling your kind of news. Some newspapers won't run particular kinds of pieces as news stories but will refer you to the advertising department. Others might not cover your run-of-the-mill event but will happily write a trend piece on another aspect of your business. Find out what the newspaper looks for, take a step back and re-evaluate what you have to offer. You might still find another angle to getting some good free news coverage.