These are lists of story ideas that we send out to area media. They aren't full-blown news releases. They're "teasers" -- usually one paragraph to try to "hook" the reporter, with a brief description of the story, a contact person, and a phone number. We send these periodically, and sometimes we just keep them on hand in the office so that we're prepared when the inevitable slow news day arrives and reporters call or come by looking for virtually anything. That happens frequently, and we don't like to let them leave empty- handed.
Our general rule is when in doubt, don't hold
a news conference. Bringing the media in for anti-climactic news
conferences is damaging in the long run. We save our news conference
chips and use them for very special stories. That way, when we do
have a news conference, the media know that an important story is forthcoming
and their time will not be wasted.
Some examples of news conferences we have
had are: the creation of Chairs of Excellence, the naming of a Chairholder,
the hiring of a new football coach, the completion of an internal review
of alleged NCAA violations and the announcement of the Northeast Tennessee
Consortium for Service Learning. Having a "big name" speaker on campus
is often an occasion for a news conference.
4. Public Service Announcements
These are short announcements written for broadcast media -- radio and television. Most of our PSAs promote events of interest to the community. They are written in large type, all caps, since many times they are read live. We indicate at the top of the PSA what the length is, so the announcer can easily fit the announcement into a time slot. Most of our PSAs are 30 seconds in length.
Every week, we publish a listing of events entitled "Next Week at ETSU." This goes out to all area media. In addition, we send out a monthly calendar of events. The News Bureau Editor in University Relations is the person responsible for each of these. Again, sufficient lead time is important in getting your items included.
6. Talk Shows
7. Communication Through Computer