"On Deadline: Managing Media Relations" - An Analysis (part 5)

News: What It Is and How It Gets to the Public (part B)

by

Charles Lamson

Media Relations and News

For the media relations professional, the task is not the delivery of news to an editor. A more accurate characterization is the delivery of properly prepared material that might be passed on by an editor to become news. What criteria do editors use in determining whether or not material will become news?

Michigan State University conducted a survey for the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Newspaper Readership Project to answer that question. The journalists queried defined news as having the following characteristics:

1. Consequence. Educates and informs; is important to lifestyle or ability to cope; has a moral or social importance; is "should know" material
2. Interest. Is unusual, entertaining, has human interest, arouses emotions or would cause people to talk about it
3. Timeliness. Is current; is a new angle on events or a new trend
4. Proximity. Pertains to local issues, trends or events
5. Prominence. Concerns famous people, famous events; has received other media coverage.

Other perspectives emphasize different factors. Some assert that news is information that is timely, interesting and significant. Others say it is new information that interests a large number of people. Still others claim that news is not what you want to tell other people but what other people want to know about you. Whichever definition you choose, remember this: news is a perishable commodity. Nothing dies more quickly than yesterday's news.

For the media relations practitioner who has been given the edict to "Get this news out right away," determining if that material has a chance of becoming news is not as intimidating as you think. Your information must be good enough to meet the ultimate definition of news: it is whatever the editor says it is. However, there are questions you can ask yourself about the material. These questions correlate well with what most journalists believed to be news criteria:

• Is the story local? Does it have a local "hook" to it, something that will interest readers or viewers in this area? For trade or specialty publications, is the material of interest to the targeted leadership?
• Is this information unique or unusual? Is this the first, the latest, the last, the biggest of something?
• Is the material timely? Is this something happening now or that will happen in the near future? Does the material relate to another item that is currently being discussed publicly? Is this a new trend?
• Is it timeless? Is this a topic with a long shelf life, such as AIDS, the environment or terrorism?
• Does this information concern  people? Our curiosity about the lives and events of others is evidenced by the strong sales of periodicals devoted just to people and by the growing number of "reality" shows and talk shows on television.
• Does this material create human interest? Pathos? Humor?
• Does this information have consequences that affect lives?
• Does it educate/inform? Is it of moral/social importance?
• Is this news of the widest possible interest to all those who are within the scope of the medium's distribution (print or electronic)?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, chances are your material will get an editor's attention and perhaps be placed in the newspaper in the evening news or on a major news Web site.

*SOURCE: ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS, 4TH ED., 2006, CAROLE M. HOWARD AND WILMA K. MATTHEWS,  PGS. 25-26*

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