Get your name in the paper - how to publicize a small business in local media - Sales & Marketing - Tutorial

Home Office Computing, Feb, 1994 by Rosalind Resnick

DURING MY FIVE YEARS AS A BUSINESS WRITER FOR The Miami Herald, I must have sifted through thousands of press releases and fielded hundreds of phone calls from local business owners and their public relations people trying to pitch me stories.

Few of these stories ever make it into the paper, and most of the press releases end up in the trash. The reason: They just aren't news. On the other hand, a small band of local businesspeople and professionals seem to pop up regularly in the pages of The Herald's Business Monday tabloid.

What makes the difference? Some people know how to play the game, others don't have a clue. Art Berkowitz was one of the savvy ones. CPA Berkowitz, 45, a Laguna Niguel, California, sole practitioner who used to work in suburban Miami, wasn't a partner at a Big Six accounting firm and hadn't written any best-selling books. But week after week, Berkowitz would manage to get himself mentioned in The Herald's business section, sometimes offering tax advice, other times holding forth on college financing strategies. Berkowitz's secret: contacting reporters who covered his areas of expertise and then being available to return their phone calls quickly.

"Some of it was persistence, but a lot of it was luck," admits Berkowitz, who has not made much headway in getting noticed by his new local paper, The Orange County Register. "You just have to be at the fight place at the fight time."

As Berkowitz's experience shows, capturing the attention of the local business press--the business section of the daily newspaper, the weekly journal, or the monthly magazine--is never an exact science. Although companies sometimes get results from a carefully crafted press release and a few strategic phone calls to the appropriate editor or reporter, I've seen plenty of businesses get press, or fail to get it, due to the vagaries of publication deadlines. I recall one Miami law firm that kept after me for a year to do a profile, but there was never a news hook to hang the story on. Then, late one Tuesday afternoon, a story that was scheduled to run fell through. My editors scrambled to find a replacement. That Monday, the Miami law firm finally got its profile in The Herald--and was later featured on the front page of The National Law Journal too.

Getting Through to the Press "The more you understand the local media and how they operate, the better you can use them to market yourself and your business," says Toni Charbonnet, the public relations person who represents the Miami law firm Valdes-Fauli, Cobb, Bischoff & Kriss.

But even though this advice comes from a PR specialist, you need not hire one to get your name in the paper. Even for entrepreneurs on a budget, there are plenty of cost-effective ways to catch the attention of the local press.

1. Tell us why we should ever write about you. Most local business writers work for daily newspapers. That means they're on deadline, grinding out as many as three or four news stories a day in addition to writing features for the paper's weekly business section. Pitch your story as succinctly as possible with a quick phone call or a short press release.

"The trick on the phone is to get the pitch out briefly and articulately," says Sandra Beckwith, 39, a home-based public relations specialist in Fairport, New York, who often writes down a one- or two-sentence pitch and rehearses it before she calls the media.

2. Tell us why we should write about you today. Have you just rolled out a hot new product? Bagged a Fortune 500 client? Landed a government contract? Hired a new executive? Won an award? This is the kind of stuff that the local business press considers news and will probably want to run right away.

"Spend the time to analyze what is unique or different about your business or the product you produce-and what makes it news," advises Charbonnet.

3. Don't swing for the fences, just try to get on base. One of the biggest reasons why businesses fail to get written up is that they aim too high. Few newspapers would ever run an entire feature story about a CPA in solo practice, for instance, but somebody like Berkowitz--who's articulate, informative, and available to the media-can get himself quoted with some regularity in articles that show off his expertise. Beckwith suggests sending out a brief note telling the local business editor or reporter who you are, what you do, and what you'd like to comment on.

4. Read all about it. This may seem obvious, but the best way to find out how to press the local media's hot buttons is to read the paper and see what kind of stories typically run. While most weekly business tabloids contain a cover story and several full-length features, many also have departments devoted to new hires, awards, and promotions plus locally produced columns on marketing, the professions, retailing, and other topics. Find out where your news item would fit and send an announcement to the reporter or editor in charge.

5. Know your audience. Getting to know the likes, dislikes, interests, and preferences of the business writers who cover your industry or profession is just as vital to selling your story to the local media as market research is to peddling your product or service to potential customers. "A reporter who is also a mother may be interested in safety issues involving toys," notes Charbonnet.