Making the News in Hard Times

The current recession is hurting everyone. Newsrooms are among the casualties. Due to thin finances, newspapers everywhere are being forced to cut staff, production costs, and even content.

These obstacles are a concern for today’s news maker as many newspapers have reduced the number pages they print. Fewer pages ultimately means less space for printed stories. Because of this, it is crucial to consider the length of your press releases. Your news needs to be able to be read quickly and fit with the other important stories of the day.

You should also consider the day and time you submit your news. To cut costs, some papers have eliminated an entire day (or even two days) from their publication schedule. In Illinois, the Daily Review Atlas and the Kewanee Star Courier both made headlines last year when they cut Mondays from their regular schedule. Also, the San Jose Mercury News dropped Mondays and Tuesdays.

In effort to cut costs, many newspapers are going paperless or straight-to-the-web. This may sound frightening at first, but ultimately online publishing can actually benefit news makers. Here are six reasons why:

• Space – In the past, news stories could be made or broken depending upon how much space a newspaper had available on a given day. Websites have changed the game substantially – space is no longer a premium.

• Timeliness – News readers used to have to wait to get their news at specific times of the day. Online news is immediate and convenient. The reader is no longer on a specific schedule and the most recent news is ALWAYS available. Plus, it’s quicker and easier to host a story online than to print the same story. In fact, some newspapers even import press release feeds directly into their editorial system or website to ensure timely news.

• Searches – News appearing on a newspaper’s website can be found in search engines everywhere. Because of this, their online audience is potentially broader than their print editions. This increases your chances of your target audience successfully finding your news.

• Multimedia – In the past, only photographs or visual documents could appear in a newspaper. Online news allows other forms of media to appear “in print” alongside your news. Audio and video files are commonly found on newspaper websites. Many of these files are sent to the newspaper attached to an original press release.

• Exclusivity – When a news story is posted online it’s usually hosted on its own web page. This means readers have fewer distractions diverting their eyes away from your story. There are no other headlines cluttering the page that your news is on, and casual readers are likely to read more of your article online than they would in print.

• Subscribers – Most printed newspapers are a paid subscription service, and most news websites are not. Having a newspaper delivered in these times is somewhat of a luxury. In order to save money, some families are canceling their subscriptions and getting their news online instead.

As the news media world changes, it’s important to modify your PR style to match these trends. If you're looking for more information about the benefits of online press release hosting, check out this video at Bad Pitch Blog.