Media
Approaching the media doesn’t need to be intimidating – they are people just like us after all!
The key to working with the media is you must be organised and you must have a clear story that they can work with. Here are our top tips below for working with the media:
Create a word document outlining your raffle – the who, what, when, where and why. This should include a brief description of your group or organisation, what you are raising money for, the prizes on offer and how to purchase tickets.
Research newspapers that would be interested in your story and collect their editorial email address. You can find this information either via the paper’s website or via the contents page of the newspaper or magazine.
Consider what makes your story newsworthy. How will your raffle funds help the local community? The journalist you are pitching to will only run a story if they think their readers will be interested in it.
Create an email to send to the newspaper, explaining why you think the paper might be interested in your story. An example is below. Attach the word document with the vital information to supplement your email.
Send the email to the newspaper using the editorial address you collected earlier. If you are sending the story to more than one newspaper you should create separate emails for each. Journalists may not run the story if they think they don’t have it exclusively.
Wait 4 days and if you have not heard anything from the newspaper you may want to call and check if they have received your email. Be polite either way and only phone once. Hounding a journalist to run your story will have the opposite affect and just annoy them.
Don’t forget to say thank you! If your story does get covered – make sure you email the journalist to say thank you.
Want to see an example?
Dear Bill
I’ve attached for you information regarding a raffle that we are currently running. The raffle is raising funds for our under 13s to be able to travel to America to compete in an international competition.
Our Under 13s are the first Queensland team to have ever qualified for the competition so we thought this might have been of interest to you. They need to raise $20,000 to be able to go to the competition and will be only one of two Australian teams competing.
We would love any support the paper could offer to help us with fundraising. If you would like to arrange a photographic opportunity with our team or require more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards
Mary
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