In the first responder world there are two types of press releases, those that must be published and those that need a compelling reason to get print.
In our business if we operate at a significant fire or MVA we stand a 99.9% chance that our information will be picked up by the press. We are talking about hard news .
If we are pitching fire prevention day, our installation dinner or other similar story the chances of getting placement are greatly diminished.
I’m pretty lucky in Smithtown, NY where I serve as the FD PIO. Most of our day to day press initiatives are covered by the local media which consists of three weekly newspapers and two or three websites which maintain hyper local sites.
If I have a specific alarm report that I want to disseminate to the press, I send a release with photos and let the editors do their thing. In almost all instances the locals do a great job of rewriting the story to fit their papers styles. I always try to place a quote or two in the body of my release but if an editor calls for more information or quotes, I’m happy to provide.
My problem lies with one of the weeklies in that they take my releases verbatim. When I write a release I write it in “fire-ese.” I tell the facts, give the numbers of the apparatus, give hours in military time etc. I use parenthesis around the military time, or other fire jargon to better explain, but this paper prints it all, as mentioned, verbatim.
There is a certain group of trend arbiters around whom I envision being skinny, wearing all black, with black framed glasses who think that when they speak the entire work of public relations will turn on a dime to do their bidding.
Over the last several years I am becoming progressively irritated when PR pundits keep saying that the standard press release is dead. Maybe the body is cold from where they sit, but in our line of work the old tried and true, boring and predictable press release is our lifeline to the media.
A lot of what we do as PIO’s is based on standard formula and template. If we are sending out releases and working with the press at an incident scene we are pretty much like baseball umpires, calling them as we see them. There is no room for embellishment or spin in our line of work. This is one of the aspects of our job that we should be thankful for when we look at the alternatives, like choosing sleazoid PR as a career specialty.
Yesterday we had our third working fire in less then two weeks. In this day and age in a suburban department that is usually a years worth of major jobs.
After photographing at the scene and rotating on a hose line I went back to the firehouse to send out my incident release to the press.
Since we all send the vast majority of our PIO press releases via e-mails these days I wondered what many of you write as your subject line copy in the e-mail.
I was just cleaning up my favorites sites on Internet Explorer. I have not updated my links section on this blog in awhile. I use these favorites for both my work as a fire department PIO and as a marketing and public relations professional for a national not for profit organization. Over the weekend I will hopefully add some of these new sites to my links page.
I present to you the most often visited PR sites that I rely on for information.
I was at a conference last year that had a session on “social media press releases.” In essence this form of release is intended to provide reporters with an interactive and user-friendly way to get information, audio clips, photos and videos about a story in a one stop shopping format. By providing this type of release, as the theory goes, a reporter would have everything at their fingertips to prepare the story without having to play telephone tag with you to get additional details, photos etc. As usually, when you hear these ideas at a conference they seem to fall just below Einstein’s Theory of Relativity as ground breaking, cutting edge genius.
A PR lesson for all of us PIO’s to learn today comes from none other then General Motors. When we write a release we have to look to all of our collateral (website, brochures etc.) to make sure they are all up to date and in sync with what we have written. This is just one of the problems that is plaguing GM for what I consider to be a gut reaction to a marketing scheme that has not taken into consideration all of the ramifications of what they are looking to accomplish.
The PR team at General Motors is spinning their wheels today in an attempt to clarify an internal memo that said employees should only use the word “Chevrolet” when referring to the brand, not Chevy.
Like in the movie Groundhog Day I have a situation that happens over and over again, in the same manner each June. My department hands out a number of scholarships to deserving students at the high school, I take pictures, submit them to the local paper and they never get printed.
Everything I normally send to this newspaper gets printed, I have a great relationship with the paper, its employees and editor but each year for some unknown reason the scholarship story and photos never makes it to print.
I made an error. I sent releases to three community papers this past week about my recent department installation. I normally receive my subscription copies of these publications today.
I usually wake up at 5:00am to do some of my PIO chores before I get ready for the job that feeds me. In reviewing the release I sent to the papers a few days ago, I noticed I made a spelling error to the name of one of the politicians in attendance. This is really upsetting since I proof what I write and use an additional person to check for typos. I have written this person’s name in releases numerous times over the years, but this one slipped by me.
We held our 102nd Installation of Officers this past Saturday night. I wrote a post on public perception of installations a few days ago. Contrary to popular belief we did not have to tap the nuclear arsenal to quell any disturbances in the community from rampaging firefighters.
In addition to the installation of officers, Firefighter of the Year Awards, (I was shocked to get the 2009 Firefighter of the Year) service pins (two 50 year members) and speeches, two legislative awards were presented. Congressman Timothy Bishop and Suffolk County Legislator Lynn Nowick were given Special Achievement Awards. Both help our department in many ways. Bishop helped us obtain a new ambulance through a grant and Nowick works the Legislature for us to make sure we get our just due when it comes to extra County funding.
As Public Information Officer I think it is important that we publicize these types of legislative awards as much as possibly. This is a kinder and gentler form of political payback for a job well done.
Towards the top of my “to do” list is a push to increase the number of generic photos in my files. Generic shots would include all of our apparatus, photos of Chiefs, training and fireground shots etc.
As any editor will tell you, a release with a photo has a much higher chance of being used and could elevate your story from a few column centimeters on an inside page to a more prominent position and possibly the front page. This just happened to a story about a member in my department.
Talk about timing. Just yesterday morning I posted about the three quick decisions I have to make as a firefighter/PIO when I arrive at a scene. They were, perform the duties of a firefighter if manpower is lacking, perform my normal duties as the PIO, or watch to see the scene unfold to determine where I can best serve. I also mentioned that I occasionally go behind the lines to interact with bystanders. Little did I know that just a few hours later I would have to use all three options when we were toned out to a fully involved house fire.
When most of us write incident report press releases for consumption by the public they are fact based with very little latitude for creative license. One way I “spice” up a release for the media is by offering quotes. I do this in a number of ways – by adding quotes into the body of the release, offering a number of quotes separate from the release at the bottom of the page or prepare a separate page to go along with the release that just contains lead-ins with the relevant quotes.
A difficult situation unfolding for the Jacksonville Beach Police as the department PIO and detectives released a photo to the media of a suspect in a crime that they were looking to bring in for questioning. The problem? The suspect being sought was innocent and misidentified.
The Department, from a crisis standpoint, admitted to their mistake promptly, but damage has still been done.
I often write in my posts about using photo captions or cutline’s to briefly explain a bigger story whether it is for your website or materials you are sending to the media. Often I prefer to send the media a captioned photo over a full release. Obviously for a significant incident a full release is warranted, but for many other activities such as Fire Prevention Day, citations, school visits etc., a captioned photo is effective and more likely to receive placement.
At a recent fire exhibition on Long Island a fellow PIO asked if I had a couple of minutes to talk to him about a problem he was having. A number of people in his community were complaining to members of his volunteer department about what they thought was the excessive costs involved in running and maintaining a motorized drill team to compete. So upset was the Chief of Department that he asked the PIO to send a release to the local papers extolling the virtues of motorized racing. The only problem is the PIO agrees with the community complaints.
I wrote a few days ago about the tragic manhole accident in my own town, Smithtown, NY, that took the life of a seventeen year old boy. The incident was toned out at 9:11pm this past Sunday night.
The media response to the incident left me wondering if the press is looking to us to do the heavy lifting for them.
With all the snow in the northeast during this bitter winter a good old “Adopt a Hydrant” program was in order. I am happy to report that it was a big success, due in no small part to the new strength of the word “public” in public relations.
I always love going to the firehouse on an early Sunday morning and having a cup of coffee while shooting the breeze with those congregating before Church or gearing up for a day with the family. I didn’t expect to drink my coffee today while getting hammered for not holding the lofty position of Czar of all Media.
Believe me, I am not shilling for any business, but I find great value in a number of the free webinars that are held by Cision. I have used Cision services since they acquired Bacons.
There is, in my estimation, a large difference in sending a hard copy press release or story to the media versus electronically transmitted news. I, like most, send releases and stories about my Department almost exclusively to the media via e-mail. Less is certainly more when a media outlet reviews your materials electronically.
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