I’m going to periodically post feedback we receive from reporters because I think it’s a good idea to see what reporters tell us regarding Talking News Releases. I plan to post the good and the bad without edits.
The reporter in this post was responding to an email request for feedback on a series of releases we sent over the last couple months for the Missouri Agricultural Statistics Service about their ARMS Survey. We really prefer not to send out requests because we know reporters hate taking the time to respond but we will do so and in this case we received more than the normal number of responses.
This post is from Bob Priddy, News Director for the Missourinet, a statewide news radio network, owned by Learfield Communications, where I used to work as manager of the Brownfield Network. Bob is a past president of the Radio, Television News Directors Association.
As you might recall from your days of living in the same room with us, the Missourinet is pretty cruel to people who offer canned tape. It’s easy to be cruel to strangers who call on the phone and offer comments from the head of the National Association of Left-handed Arc-Welders about the problems of the pasta manufacturing industry in an era of low-carb diets, especially since that person lives in New Hampshire.
We tell those folks we don’t take nor do we use canned tape. If we can’t do the interview ourselves and ask our own questions and the necessary follow-up questions, we’re not interested.
That has generally been the case with the Taking News Releases. We haven’t used them on the air. But in the case of the work you guys are doing, the situation is a little different. It’s different because you’re working with Missouri entities and dispensing Missouri information. So the ZimmCom product becomes a tip service for us. If the subject is something we’re interested in, we can follow up with the angle or the issue we want to pursue.
In the case of the ARMS survey, I don’t know if we would have known about it without the material you have sent us. I don’t recall any direct contact from the people behind the survey.
It seems to me the value of the kinds of service you folks are providing—from our standpoint—is that it offers your clients exposure. The ultimate decision on the value of the news from your client will always be made in the newsroom of whatever outlet gets this material. The important thing, however, is that the material is being put before the eyes of reporters and editors. Whether they use it exactly as you send it to them or whether they use the material to build their own stories, with our without the people you use, is secondary to the fact that they get to see the information, evaluate it, and pursue the issue.
You are providing your clients with a valuable service, using your expertise to enhance their outreach opportunities. You cannot order me to use the material but you can package it in such a way that I find it attractive enough to develop it for my newsroom’s use if I find it editorially valuable. And I think that’s about as much as your clients can ask for, at least from us.
Good luck with the Talking News Releases. Keep us on your list.
Bob Priddy
Thanks Bob for your feedback. We fully intend to keep sending you our Talking News Releases for the benefit of our clients and as a service to reporters like yourself!