In media relations, the person to contact is the editor. Depending on the size of the publication, and especially at daily newspapers, it will likely be the editor a particular section (National, Local, Sports, A&E, etc. )
When establishing contact with an editor, or journalist, it’s important to know what you can expect and what your media contact will expect. Here’s brief list of items to prepare for journalists once they’ve decided to move ahead with story on your organization
Company History – View an example.
Fact Sheet – View an example.
Logos – Print (300 dpi) and Web (72 dpi). dpi = pixels per inch.
A person that is available for comment. Preferably, someone with clout that manages or leads the department that the article is covering.
Product/service Information
Contact Information
Milestones and Awards, etc. – This may already be covered in the company history depending on the design.
For publicly-traded companies, the journalist or editor will want to financial results for the past fiscal year, the company’s stock symbol and which Index the company is listed on.
Other helpful things to provide are recent press releases, if they apply to the story angle, and links to other coverage you’ve received in the past three months. Journalists do not want to rerun a story that someone else has already done.
In return for doing this work, gathering these resources and making people available for the media, you’re ultimately guaranteed nothing. News controls the media.
However, you should expect to be notified by the publication if a story doesn’t run that was expected to.
