Amid all the grim news we’ve been hearing about the demise of big-city newspapers, some small newspapers are sitting pretty.
An article at WashingtonPost.com says that while the Internet is transforming the largest papers in the business dramatically—siphoning classified advertising and commoditizing national news—many small papers are weathering the decline with relative ease, and some are even prospering.
Here’s why:
- They have less competition from other media outlets, and less competition on the web for local news.
- They’re insulated from advertising slumps that have hurt big newspapers.
- They have smaller staffs and lower-salaried journalists
- They are passionate about local news online and offline
That’s good news for Publicity Hounds.
It also means that spending most of your time pitching the big daily newspapers might not be such a good idea. Yes, pitch them. But publicity in the smaller-circulation newspapers could also pay off. Their readers are generally more loyal to the weekly newspaper than they are to the big-city dailies.
So start forming valuable relationships with local newspapers. Contact people who work for the free shoppers, your local weekly, your business journal, and all the second- and third-level niche publications. As I stated in my “Special Report #49: 17 Ways to Build Valuable Relationships with Media People,” generating publicity is all about building relationships.
Every time you contact a journalist, the message must be “I’m here to help you” instead of “I want something.”
What have you done this week to start building relationships?
Hi Joan,
I have to hand it to you on this one! I got my start freelancing with a small town weekly newspaper called The Bucks County Herald. The newspaper is free and supports itself completely by advertisers and focuses not just on news, but largely on local arts and culture, sports, and features.
It is refreshing to go somewhere and intro myself to folks as writing for this paper as it is enormously appreciated in an area served by several larger newspapers. They print 21,500 with 19,000 papers picked up at over 100 locations, a subscrition service and an estimated readership of about 45,000! Big numbers for a small newspaper!
The editor is quite open to press releases and prints many as long as well written and there is space to place them. As a freelancer, I’ve done both articles for the paper and press releases for folks who ask me as long as I don’t write articles about them…conflict of interest there…have to be careful of that.
Thanks for responding, Rose. I used to live in Pennsylvania and love Bucks County! And I’m familiar with the paper.
Regarding press releases, anyone who is struggling with writing them should sign up for my free email course “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.” Sign up here: http://www.PublicityHound.com/pressreleasetips/art.htm
Joan:
I have had some recent success by pitching the locals with ideas about my clients and even for groups I hold membership in. I got a hit last week with the Charlotte Weekly Newspaper for a club whose website my company built, http://www.excelsiorclub.net and video we produced, http://www.eastonsweb.com/development/Excelsior
I submitted a photo that I took of the owner in front of the club holding the award I received for producing the video. The editor loved it, I got a good mention and the club got great PR.
John
http://www.eastonsweb.com
I’m a big believer in this strategy, have used it many times–and have gotten a number of good sized stories (like 30 inches with picture), versus a two-line mention in a major paper.