Use the local press to give your business a boost

The local press is the most important

Everyone reads the local press because, unless we're hermits, we like to know what's going on in the area. Where's that bypass going and did Councillor Harris really pass building tenders to his brother-in-law? Apart from the gossip news, the pull of local papers lies in their advertising. The classified small ads are a mine of information to bargain hunters. In many areas the local press can be split between paid-for papers and the free-sheets. While originally the freesheets were set up to rival their more legitimate brothers, as time has gone by most of them have been bought up and absorbed by the paid-fors and are simply advertising pages cloaked by a thin veneer of news.

I have always believed – having seen no hard research – that the reaction and response to free-sheets is much poorer simply because they are seen as throwaways. Advertising rates are cheaper in a free-sheet – sometimes included 'free' by those publishers who produce both the paid-for and the free-sheet; so perhaps they agree with me. Newspaper proprietors are in business just like you and are out to make a profit by increasing sales. They will not achieve this if the stories are stale, inept or inaccurate.

What they're looking for

What makes news? Topicality, originality, personality and sometimes humour. You must find a topical peg to hang the story on. It's not news that your business is making, say, coffins, but it will be if it's your tenth anniversary or you have just taken on your fiftieth employee, or sold your thousandth coffin or had an order from Russia. There's a story everywhere if you look with a journalist's eye. The School of Journalism will train you to believe that there are just five topics of news.

So when I wrote a serious release for one of my commercial willow clients and, as the last line, mentioned they'd made a dog basket for the Queen, the story made most of the nationals; Radio 4 generated a live broadcast for Radio Montreal – in French. Crazy, and dispiriting for those of us trying to write hard news.

I once put out a story that a local cabinet-maker had made magicians' tricks as a sideline for years. That by itself was not news. The impact was that his main customer was giving a show at the local theatre. The regional TV station wanted to lock him up in one of his own trunks. The story got him half a page plus picture and many nice direct quotes. All for free. The only space where you can get away with a less noteworthy story is the local features page. Many papers have a women's page, craft or business section where an in-depth story can be laid out, but these opportunities are rare.

The press release: telling the media

It is perhaps not generally realised how much of a paper's output comes in unsolicited. Many reports are straight reprints of stories that are fed in. These come in the form of press releases sent in by individuals, associations and firms. Because the press work to deadlines, your news stands more chance of getting printed.

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