What makes news before we dive into the elements of what makes news, I want to highlight a couple points. And I'll do that using Twitter screengrabs. I'll do that throughout this course. Here's the first. I don't want to talk to your CEO just because in the late 90s, we used to call this the CEO lunch pitch. My CEO had a ham sandwich today.

Are you interested in interviewing him? Nope. It's not newsworthy. There has to be a good reason to contact that reporter. You have to have news or a story or unique point of view. Same reporter same point, reiterated again, unless you're a genius, you have to have news.

Here's another example. Your point of view isn't enough. Tell the reporter something they don't know. give them information they won't find elsewhere. Explain what makes your point of view unique and how you're uniquely qualified to give it what perspective Do you offer For that no one else does. If you were to take a journalism one on one course you would learn that these are the elements of what makes news timing, significance, prominence, proximity, conflict, and human interest.

Timing. Why today? It's the first question you should ask yourself. Why do I want to share this information with this reporter today? Why is it relevant today? It's the first question my colleague Doug Holt used to ask as a reporter for The Chicago Tribune.

Why today? Why is it relevant? Why should we care? To illustrate each point I'll share an example story. I live in Los Angeles so most of my examples are from Los Angeles and the surrounding area. But if you pay close enough attention to the news, you'll see similar examples in your city.

Legendary fish tacos from Ricky's return this Wednesday. These fish tacos are legendary and they're coming back Yes, time element in the headline. This is why so many companies announce their product or service coming out in six months. Apple, for example, does a really good job of managing the news cycle. they'll announce a new iPhone and then there's six months or more of speculation on what features will be included. significance, how many people does your product or service affect or have the power to affect?

This is why so many companies mentioned size of market or a study and their announcements. This is also why milestones are relevant. 1 billion customers served five year anniversary X number of downloads, all of those usually make news. Here's an example. It's bad news, but Takata airbag recall affects one in eight cars. That's a huge number.

How many people does your product or service affect prominence prominence means celebrities or rich people. Celebrities make The news because we want to live vicariously through them. This is why so many brands want to be featured in pictures with celebrities on red carpets, and why so many nonprofits and brands want to align with celebrities. Entrepreneurs increasingly fall in this category too. Here's an example. Last baby swan.

When you're rich and you own exotic wildlife and one goes missing, it makes the news proximity Where's your company, product or service located? What markets does it serve? Where do you get your materials, newspapers, regional magazines and some online sites only cover what's happening in their backyard. That's why securing a story in a neighborhood newspaper or local business journal is a good way to launch your company. Here's an example. Los Angeles farmers markets accept food stamps.

Now low income households can purchase fresh fruits and vegetables to maintain Adequate nutritional levels. It's an access story in our backyard conflict. This is Apple versus Google, Uber and Lyft versus traditional taxis, that in a box companies versus mattress stores. These stories usually involve two competing companies or traditional industry versus disruptors. Here's an example election puts San Benito county on anti fracking map. Big Oil versus small county, David versus Goliath human interest.

This is puppy dogs babies ice cream, and the world's largest x. In this picture x is pizza. This is why broadcast news segments spend 40 minutes showing you the worst news and then close with a segment inviting viewers to name the cute animal at the local zoo. cottonelle By the way, the bath tissue company will bring Labrador puppies For Honor segments because they're cute and cuddly. Guinness World Record attempts also usually make Here's an example. Palladio's helps men build core strength.

Plot is traditionally considered a female centric exercise is tweaked for men, and a new market is formed. The new spectrum falls on a continuum. Forgive my language, but chicken shit is on the left and chicken salad is on the right. We want to provide reporters and producers with chicken salad. As I mentioned before, our goal is to spoon feed reporters what we have and make sure it matches up with what their audience is consuming. Again, to use a metaphor, feed them chicken salad.

What is chicken salad? The more newsworthy items we can package together, the more likely a reporter or producer will cover our story. That takes us to our first assignment. After this video open up the attached document. It has links to three news stories. Your assignment is to go through each story and highlight the elements of what makes news.

So you're looking for timing. Why today? significance how many people does it affect or have the power to affect prominence? Is there a celebrity or important person attached? proximity? Is it local, regional, national or international conflict?

Is it underdog versus established company or upsetting the status quo and human interest? How does it tug at the heartstrings. I also included two additional stories to provide context from a reporter's point of view on publicity and story pitches. Open up the document now