How To Use The News Cycle To Advance Your Cause
As it becomes more and more challenging to pitch press and secure earned media, it’s increasingly necessary to use the news cycle as a tool to help supercharge your pitch angle.
If there’s an issue or story in the news that could be connected to your pitch, using it allows you to jump onto the back of the news cycle and become a part of it. The news cycle acts as an accelerant to your pitch, giving it greater relevance. In the increasingly crowded media landscape, using a newshook has become necessary. This article will outline how to use the news cycle to advance your cause.
Find Your Way In
First and foremost, you’ll need to keep a discerning eye on the news. There’s always something happening, but often multiple big news stories will arrive at once. As you watch the media digest the story and create its own narrative, see where and how your pitch could fit into the news cycle.
Of course it depends on your issue area – if you are pitching an environmental angle, you likely won’t find a way to connect it to Ukraine or a presidential debate, however, when there’s a massive storm, an unprecedented wildfire, historic temperatures, etc. that could be an opportunity.
As the media cover the devastation or the historic nature of an environmental disaster, they can break up some of their coverage with a segment about what the new extreme weather could mean for our climate future – who will be affected first and how? You could offer an expert, someone affected by extreme weather, or a spokesperson from your organization who can connect the dots between the current extreme weather being reported on-screen and the future climate challenges the country will face.
There is always an angle that you can find – be creative and thoughtful about how you can adjust your pitch and be ready if and when media are interested. Some organizations keep a spokesperson bank to call on across the country to ensure they can fulfill every opportunity.
Use Experts or Data
When pitching your issue or angle, it’s critical to offer some form of expertise, often that will be a scientist, doctor, researcher, or experienced campaigner in the field. This person helps give your issue and your pitch greater credibility. Often, cable news is looking for an expert to call on when they are covering a story – they need someone who will provide that credibility to viewers, who can answer hypothetical questions, or who can speak from experience. Offering that person helps the reporter or media booker find the scientific or educational angle they may need for well-rounded coverage.
Offering expertise or new data is an effective way to set yourself apart from others attempting to use a news moment. Data similarly provides credibility and can be equally valuable to press as they work to cover the story from every angle.
If you’re an environmental organization that conducts regular research, use your research to highlight what insight you or your expert could bring to the conversation. Provide a glimpse of the data in your pitch and emphasize that you can provide deeper analysis about what the data show and what it means to viewers.
Connect the Dots
Often, news producers or reporters are extremely pressed for time. They don’t have hours to connect the dots between one issue and another or to parse the data – do it for them.
Deliver your pitch on a silver platter so that all the reporter or news producer has to do is say yes when you offer to appear on TV or serve as a source. When you provide some of the background and research and help make a clear case for the connection between extreme weather and climate change it makes their lives easier. Help them connect the dots between the issues or provide the necessary background, research, or alternative perspective that will improve their news coverage. Make it clear in your pitch why what you are providing is so valuable and why their viewers or readers will benefit.
Use Niche Media
Finally, if you’re struggling to break through to larger media outlets, consider starting with smaller trade publications. These outlets are more interested in granular details about an industry and are often easier to pitch. Getting a story placed in a trade publication can help provide the momentum to get the interest of a larger outlet.
Use the trade publication as a jumping off point and make your case there so that you can use the clip to pitch larger outlets about the relevance of your insight or data. Larger outlets often scan trade publications for news or an alternative perspective – it’s a great stepping stone to larger outlets for your story.
Conclusion
It’s increasingly challenging to secure earned media coverage. If you or your issue or campaign are working to get on TV or in newspapers, using the news cycle is a necessity. When a major story breaks, it’s an opportunity to highlight the relevancy to help advance your issue.
This article outlined four key ways to use the news cycle to help secure earned media. Those strategies include: Finding your specific way into the story, using experts or data, connecting the dots, and using niche media.
It’s critical that you keep an eye on the news so that you can identify the right moment to use the news to pitch your story. Be sensitive, but when it comes to issues like climate change, unfortunately natural disasters are often evidence of the importance of taking action to address the issue. Consider the circumstances and the messaging, but use the opportunity to reinforce how critical it is that action is taken or a change is made to avoid future devastation.
