Virtual Town Hall on the Climate Crisis

Contact the Media

It's critical that you contact the media about your "Party For The Planet" to increase the chances that your event gets covered. This is a unique event -- it's the first time in history that there has been a national, virtual town hall where questions from voters to presidential candidates were posed over YouTube -- so there's a very interesting story for them to cover. There are also fun elements for them to cover -- from your cookout/potluck to Al Gore's Live Earth concerts on 7 continents that we will watch during our events.

There are three key phases in contacting the media:

Build your list
Send out your advisory
Call the reporters

1. Building your media list:
First you need to create a list of the names, phone numbers and fax/email media outlets and reporters in your area. The following web sites are a great place to start. But contact information for the press changes very often so you might need the good old fashion phone book.

Act for Change media tool: http://capwiz.com/wa/dbq/media/
For local AP contact information: www.ap.org/pages/contact/contact.html
To find your local progressive blogs: http://leftyblogs.com/

Keep track of the information you collect. You can use it again for future events.
Here's a chart to help you figure out whom to target. It's listed in order of priority, so start at the top.

Outlet	Info You Need	Why You Want to Include Them
The Associated Press (AP)	General phone number & e-mail for the local office in your state. You should also ask who covers local politics and talk to them specifically.	They are a syndicate, meaning other outlets often pick up their stories. They also keep a "daybook" or list of events in the area that other media outlets use to decide what to cover. You definitely want them post your event in their daybook!
Your local TV station that covers local news daily.	Phone, e-mail, & fax of the newsroom. Specifically, you want the news assignment editor.	Because they are local, they are going to be interested in what is going on in the area. Most people get their news from TV. TV stations care about good visuals at events.
Your local newspaper(s), daily and weekly.	The general phone number & e-mail for the newsroom. Specifically, you want the news assignment editor - sometimes called the metro editor. You should also be sure to contact the reporter who covers local politics directly, since they often have input into what assignments they get..	Because they are local, they are going to be interested in what is going on in the area.
Your local progressive columnist, at your daily or weekly paper	Phone, e-mail, & fax number of the local progressive columnist	Columnists are separate from the news department. Both could conceivably cover your event--sometimes columnists are more likely. Unlike the news section, columnists are there to give there opinions and would value a good issue-oriented event.
Your local radio station if it does its own local news—likely an all news station & probably a public radio station.	Phone, e-mail, & fax number of the newsroom or news director.	Same as above. If they can’t make it to your event, offer them an interview about your event by phone.
Your local progressive blogs	Email and website name (URL) of your local progressive blog.	Local blogs can provide great coverage of events -- and help publicize them. Pre-event publicity isn't just read by activists, it's often read by reporters, who then may be more inclined to attend your event.

2. Send out your media advisory:
A media advisory is a brief statement that tells reporters everything they need to know about your event. Click here to download the template advisory.

You’ll need to go through the document and customize it to describe your event. Watch for any sections surrounded by brackets, like this "[text to be replaced]," and replace them with local information.

Once you've customized your advisory, you need to email or fax it to the reporters on your list. These days most reporters use email, so try to use email as much as possible. You should plan on sending out your advisories twice--on, Monday, July 3 and then again on Friday, July 6. ( Some reporters will have lost it during the busy July 4th week – so sending again on Friday is important for refreshing their memory.

3. Call the reporters:
Calling reporters is the most important part of contacting the media. They get hundreds of media advisories, so this is your chance to really make the case for how great your event is and why they should cover it.

Before you start the calls, review the press calls script. Spend a few minutes thinking about what you’ll say before starting your calls. Practice it with a friend or say it out loud a few times (don't worry -- even the professionals do this). You’re trying to take the most interesting and timely aspects of the story and condense them into 30 seconds or less.

Try to talk to reporters directly. Leaving a message on their machine or with a receptionist isn't nearly as effective.

You should call reporters twice: once on Monday morning, July 3, after you send them your advisory, and again on Friday, July 6.

The most important call is the one to your local Associated Press (AP) office. Ask them to put your event on their “day book”—the list of events in the area that other media outlets use when deciding what to cover.

Here are the ideal times for calling the media:

Call TV stations before 9 am, which is when they have their morning assignment meeting.
Call papers between 9 am and 10 am, when editors & reporters choose stories for the day.
Call radio anytime.

Note: If you can't call during these times, just call when you can. But be sure to ask if the reporter is 'on deadline' before you start, in case they're rushing to finish something. They may ask you to call back in a bit.

After your event, if you have any good press clips, send them to your regional coordinator or organizer.