Recently, the famous Darren Rowse (who, by the way, has the coolest Aussie accent ever!) posted a guest post by Harry Maugans on Using local newspapers to promote your blog.
Hey! I work for a local newspaper! For once, I have some inside knowledge on a blogging topic! I can expand on the topic a little! (Excuse the overuse of the exclamation point - I just chugged a giant coffee)
Harry is right - local newspapers are ALWAYS looking for filler. Often, we have to use generic crap from NAPS just to fill a page. We’d much rather have a relevant press release from a blogger. Trust me. Just last week, we ran a press release for a really cool site, openmass.org.
Anyway, here’s some of my tips to getting your press release published.
1. Write a nice, concise press release. You are a blogger after all. If you send me garbage, I’m going to have to rewrite it which is a royal pain. If I get backed up on work, I won’t be able to and your PR won’t run.
2. If you email your PR and are SOOOOOOOO concerned that we receive it, simply ask for a reply. Please, do not call the office 600 times and resend the same press release 800 times. Local newspapers do not have staff to handle your bullshit.
3. Try to keep it relevant to the paper you are sending. If you write a blog about local issues, great. If you write a blog about blogging, try and summarize what a blog is. I know it sounds crazy, but remember that the readership for local newspapers tends to be older.
4. You could even go out on a limb and send in an article or two. We’re always looking for columnists. Mention your site in every column - you get free advertising and we get free content. It’s a win-win.
5. Lastly, it can’t hurt to try. You’d be surprised at some of the crap people want published. And nothing is cooler than seeing something you wrote in print.
So get writing, and get emailing!
Subscribe to the 
until I visit the Patriots Hall of Fame!
I'm Angela - I'm staring down the barrel of my 30s (gah) working as a production editor
(office bitch) for a small newspaper. I'm consumed by my endless devotion to
the New England Patriots and have recenty taken up knitting to keep busy until September. Oh yeah, and I have a really whacky boyfriend to keep me amused.
When are we gonna see YOU in the paper then Ms. Angela?
I’ve written a few stories for the paper but I don’t like to because I rarely get paid for them.
Because I write (usually negative) things about work, I don’t think it’d be a good idea to put in something about my site. ha ha wouldn’t that be funny though, “Come to bostonbrat.net and read about how you suck.” ha ha
So does this mean you would consider running an article on Desktop Nexus?
Haha
- Harry
Send it over! I’m not the editor but he’s so busy, I usually am the one with the final say on what goes in. Oh the power!
Awesome tips Angela, especially points #2 and #5! I think that pretty much applies to any magazine or newspaper. (Found you through Universal Hub). I interned at an (awesome) alternative weekly out in West Mass a while back and we were just inundated with press releases from local acts. So many folks sent giant press kits with gorgeous artwork, bios, sampler CDs, the works—all we wanted was a paragraph of teaser info to either run in the listings or set aside to do a story/write-up later.
I just don’t have the time to handle the phone calls (yet I seem to have time to write comments on my site. Hmmm ). The politicians and campaign managers are the worst! They will send the same press release via email, snail mail, fax, then call to see if we got the email, call to see if we got the fax… Deval Patrick’s people were the most annoying of all. They’d send us media advisories for events so far away from this area, as if anyone here gives a damn if Deval is shaking hands with someone in Western MA?
Regarding #5, I don’t think a lot of people realize how easy it is to get something in the paper.
Absolutely true. I had a semi-regular op-ed column in Watertown for a year or so. Never had a single one rejected. Some editing, to be sure, but never for anything but length. Even ended up with a staff photog taking a picture with which to head the column. Great ego trip.
The best is when you realize people are actually paying attention to the stuff you write. When I started seeing “opposing viewpoint” mail running in the “letters to the editor” space, I knew I was getting somewhere
Great post…I’m so sending you my press release for Hey, It’s Free! now
I actually hadn’t thought about local newspapers, but instead this last spring I e-mailed a ton of college newspapers and got stories written about HIF in a few of them. It didn’t take that much of my time, the interviewing process was kinda fun, and I would have to say they were all pretty successful to some degree as I’m still getting traffic from the articles.
Like you say, it can’t hurt to try. I didn’t hear back from probably 90% of the newspapers I e-mailed or sent my PR to, but those that did respond either gave me good feedback as to why they wouldn’t write about the site or ended up writing about it.
Hey Angela,
Great article here… I stumbled this page
I think you’re dead on with #1 if you put a little extra effort in writing a compelling press release it goes a long way to helping your exposure.
A really great byproduct about putting out press releases is, many times when they are published people think they were actually written by unbiased sources.
There have been several times when I’ve written a piece about one of my own products and later had someone come up to me and say they saw my product in the news. Only did I later realize they were talking about the press release I wrote. Very cool stuff.
I’ve had great success using PRweb for releases. Do you have any favorites?
Best regards,
Matthew Sherborne
Suldog, know anything about Everett? We are in dire need of some columnists.
Goob, send away!
Matthew, thanks for the stumble. I know we get some press releases from one of the cities we cover that read like actual news articles. That mayor’s assistant is an excellent writer. My bosses should be cutting her a check. I’ve never really had much experience with press release distributions, though.
Dear Angela,
Thank you for this article. I have been in Boston a little over a week writing about my little smidgeon of N’orchester and wondering if I could get a wider audience than at bostonnow.com. I am glad for the advice which I will follow. I am recently transplanted from the tiny city of New London, Conn. so any advice in how to become more than a minnow in this much bigger pond is much appreciated. You have provided a valuable service though now I suspect I will have more competition. Such is life. Quality prevails. Thank you again. W.K.
By the way, I found this through Universal Hub, which also seems to be providing a valuable service.
This is a great read and something I’ll have to give a shot. Thanks for the tip!
I think my angle on my blog is interesting and the content is good, so why not?
Good idea. I live in a somewhat small town though, so I don’t think it would be worth it for me…
LOL. Laughing at no 5. There’s definitely a lot of crap being published these days.
[...] you’re done! Your ad is ready to be published. Why not see if your newspaper will publish a press release for your cafe? Hey, if you advertise with them, they might even write a feature on your [...]
Very good idea, especially if your blog has anything to do with a business you would like to promote and grow in your local area.