123ArticleOnline Logo
Welcome to 123ArticleOnline.com!
ALL >> Computers >> View Article

Two Questions You Must Answer To Make News

Profile Picture
By Author: Rusty Cawley
Total Articles: 12
Comment this article
Facebook ShareTwitter ShareGoogle+ ShareTwitter Share

When considering whether to write a story, a journalist always begins with two questions:

1. What's new?
2. Who cares?

The first point is obvious. If something isn't new, then it can't be news. Most folks understand this instinctively.

It is the second point that most people have trouble understanding. It isn't enough for your item to be new. To qualify as news, your story must appeal to a broad audience. It must have significance for other people, and lot of them.

For example, consider the Taliban, the former rulers of Afghanistan.

Before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, few news media paid any attention whatsoever to the Taliban. After Sept. 11 and through the fall of the Afghan regime, the media couldn't get enough stories about the Taliban.

What changed to make this happen? It wasn't the Taliban. What changed were the media's attitudes toward the Taliban:

1. What's new? Terrorists have attacked the United States and they are being harbored by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

2. Who cares? Virtually ...
... everyone.

Those two questions pushed the Taliban to the forefront of every mainstream newspaper, magazine, TV news program, radio news program and Web news site in the world.

This is an extreme example, but it makes the point.

If you want a story in the mainstream media, your story idea must appeal to a well-defined audience. If you want your story to appear in a trade magazine for nanotech engineers, then your story idea must appeal to nanotech engineers. If you want your story to appear in a suburban weekly, then your idea must appeal to the geographical, provincial interests of that weekly's subscribers.

The PR Rainmaker knows: If you want the news media to write about you or your company, you must clearly and concisely answer the questions What's new? and Who cares?

Copyright 2003 by W.O. Cawley Jr. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rusty Cawley is a 20-year veteran journalist who now coaches executives, entrepreneurs and professionals on using the news media to attract customers and to advance ideas. For your free copy of the hot new ebook PR Rainmaker, please visit www.prrainmaker.com right now.

Total Views: 195Word Count: 369See All articles From Author

Add Comment

Computers Articles

1. Exploring How Ai In The Cloud Can Transform Your Business
Author: TechDogs

2. The Power Of Cloud And Ai: A New Era Of Collaboration
Author: TechDogs

3. Get Business Insights Using Expedia & Booking. Com Review Data Scraping
Author: DataZivot

4. Top 10 Reasons A Strong Communication Strategy Drives Prm Program Success
Author: Archi

5. Achieve Scalable Web Scraping With Aws Lambda
Author: Devil Brown

6. Overcoming Common Challenges In Iso 27001 Implementation
Author: Jenna Miller

7. Basic Computer Course: Your Gateway To Skill Development | The Institute Of Professional Accountants
Author: Tipa Institute

8. Top 7 Advantages Of React Js
Author: Bella Stone

9. Top 7 App Marketing Tools For Mobile Success
Author: Bella Stone

10. Revolutionizing Education Management With Samphire It Solution Pvt Ltd’s Erp Software
Author: CONTENT EDITOR FOR SAMPHIRE IT SOLUTIONS PVT LTD

11. Top 10 Healthcare Technology Trends
Author: goodcoders

12. "building Tomorrow’s Factories: The Role Of Automation & Robotics In Modern Manufacturing"
Author: andrew smith

13. The Ultimate Guide To The Best Ecommerce Plugin For Wordpress
Author: Rocket Press

14. Xsosys Erp: A Scalable Solution For Businesses In Any Industry
Author: Xsosys Technology(S) Pte. Ltd.

15. Rental Management Software: A Complete Solution For Car, Property, And Coworking Space
Author: RentAAA

Login To Account
Login Email:
Password:
Forgot Password?
New User?
Sign Up Newsletter
Email Address: