As public relations professionals we ask ourselves this question everyday. A major component of the service we provide to clients is media coverage. We listen to the story/announcement/event that the client wants to garner publicity for and we extract the most newsworthy components of that story for the most media coverage possible.
So how do we do that? Well, think about the newspaper and TV news stories that grab you? They will have most, if not all, of the below elements in them.
- Conflict - Whether it’s a dispute at a local school board meeting, debates over budget legislation in Congress, or the ultimate conflict—war—conflict is almost always newsworthy.
- Impact - The number of people affected by the story is important. One thousand people benefitting from a donation is more impactful than 50 people benefitting from it.
- Novelty – Anything that deviates from the “normal” or “expected” is unique and, therefore, newsworthy.
- Prominence - Famous people get more coverage just because they are “famous,” and people tend to be more interested if an event involves an actor, politician, or someone in the spotlight.
- Proximity - Stories which happen near to us have more significance. The closer the story is to home, the more newsworthy it is.
- Timeliness - The word news means exactly that—things which are new. A story with only average interest needs to be told quickly if it is to be told at all. If it happened today, it's news. If the same thing happened last week, it's no longer interesting. People in the news business tend to focus on what’s happening this day, this hour, this minute.
Here are a few questions to ask and consider when evaluating the newsworthiness of your event or announcement.
- Who is involved?
- A person or organization of significance?
- What happened?
- Is it particularly unusual or unique?
- Does it affect a large number of people?
- Where did it take place?
- Did it happen locally?
- Will the local community care?
- When did it occur?
- Did it happen recently (timeliness)?
- Why is it important?
If you can answer positively to at least three of these questions your story/event could be of interest to the media!

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