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Getting your company's news aired on television is an incredible way to get a lot of attention. In just a minute or two of a television news interview, you can reach a significant portion of a local audience - and this is an audience that is paying attention. Unlike radio that plays in the car while the driver is driving, or eating and/or talking with other passengers, television news is something you have to watch. Viewers are paying attention. And unlike newspapers, television is filled with rich audio and colorful moving images that not only help to focus the attention of the viewer, but also go a long way to helping the viewer remember what he or she saw on the news. Television is an incredibly powerful method of getting your message out.

Television news producers know this, and so does every other communications professional out there who has ever dealt with broadcast public relations. This is why television is so much harder to capture than radio or print. With such a limited number of television opportunities during the daily local, regional and national news cycle, competition for these opportunities is extremely high. For the uninitiated or the relative newcomer to broadcast PR, garnering television for your organizational message can seem outright impossible - but don't be afraid. Television placements happen every day, in every market, and are absolutely one hundred percent possible - for you.

There are a number of broadcast public relations tools designed just for television. You have video news releases, b-roll, electronic press kits and satellite media tours, just to name the major ones. This paper will deal with the satellite media tour, or SMT, as this tool is the most direct method of communicating a company's message. The SMT is a series of consecutive interviews where the interview is conducted via satellite; the interviewer and the interviewee are in different locations yet communicate in real time for one-on-one conversations. This allows for the spokesperson to use any location they want as their backdrop, while being able to conduct interviews with newsrooms all over the country. News programs run these kinds of interviews all the time, and one can notice it when the guest and the anchor are in separate windows on the television screen as opposed to sitting across from one another in the studio, or standing next to each other in the field. Standard SMT's last two hours or more, have base prices around $16,000 (which includes all booking, production, satellite, studio, etc.) and hit approximately 12 - 14 markets around the country. It is technically possible to do 12 interviews in one hour, but it is usually too physically demanding and as well, perfectly scheduling live television news, spanning multiple markets in different time zones with different producers and styles to boot, is difficult to say the least. Costs and time goes up with specific add-ons that boost the desirability of your story, but that will be discussed later in this paper.

When thinking about how your organizational message will play on television news, it is helpful to make the distinction between hard and soft news, and to be sure about where your news fits in. Many people at the executive level often make a routine mistake in not seeing the outside world as any different as what happens within the walls of their own organization; they think that information they deem vital to their employees is also vital to the news that serves the entire local population. This is simply not true, unless your company supports the vast majority of the local population and you're about to put them all out of a job. The difference between hard news and soft news is that hard news is information that must be covered no matter what. For example, any presidential election, severe weather that poses a risk to the community (Hurricane Katrina), or major events that will affect the local or general population (the attacks of September 11, 2001). Soft news is anything else, from the uplifting story of a local fireman who helps a kitten out of a tree to a local hospital getting a new piece of equipment that will help people live longer, and from children in the community who have done something interesting to new ways to think about recycling. All entertainment news is soft news.

Either way, no matter what type of news you have, no matter what kind of story you have, it needs to be newsworthy. Newsworthy simply means that the information in the story is worthy of being put on the news. But just like the game of poker, understanding the basic concept is easy and anyone can do it, while mastering the concept is something only a select few will ever accomplish. But why should newsworthiness be so difficult?

First, let's examine what makes something newsworthy. The first rule is: if a news producer deems it newsworthy, it's newsworthy. There's nothing you can do about that, even though you'll often times not get picked up because of something that seems not newsworthy to you. That being said, there are a number of things that continually make the news, and thinking about your message and how it relates to these areas will put you in a much better position than those who don't care to do so. The following are generally understood to be newsworthy: Large Numbers of things such as sums of money or deaths; Tragedy (in the proper definition when someone great falls from greatness); Political Information such as elections, scandals or new laws that are all encompassing (such as gas rationing, but not drilling in a certain location) or a political battle; Personal finance stories that help viewers save money; Health care stories that a large number of viewers can relate to and benefit from; Time management stories that can help viewers save time during their day and make their lives easier; Stories about children, Stories about cute animals or dangerous animals; Seasonal Event/Anniversary stories; Celebrity stories; and anything strange and out of the ordinary which we call Man Bites Dog. Of course, every newscast deals with sports, weather and traffic as well.

Second, once you've figured out where you generally fit in (and by no means is the above list exhaustive) to what the news wants, it's time to figure out where you fit in, in the hierarchy of newsworthiness, to give yourself a leg up on the competition. A Man Bites Dog story gets on the news when there isn't much news to talk about, but a government scandal such as the Monica Lewinsky debacle with President Clinton, or massive numbers of deaths such as on September 11th, 2001, will always trump everything else. Also, you can combine your newsworthiness. For example, maybe you can get a celebrity to attend your local not for profit fundraiser that helps children with terminal illness, or maybe you have a personal finance story for people who have cats, or something of your own creation. Remember: your competition is coming in with newsworthy stories too; therefore you have to be more newsworthy.

Third: Be Local. It's a hard fact of life, but viewers in Saratoga don't care about the news in Sarasota. If you're strictly local, don't go looking for news placements outside of your area. If you're national, find a local tie and let the producers or media relations folks know what that tie is - and explain it fully if it needs it. Local Boy Makes Good is still a good news hook, and it's possible to be the local boy for multiple markets. Since SMT's are national or regional in nature, a lot of folks just jump right over the local angle... and get burned on it most of the time. If your spokesperson grew up in Chicago, went to college in Phoenix and currently resides in Philadelphia then her bio already relates to three great markets. If your organization is located in Birmingham, has its research lab in Raleigh, and conducts major retail operations in Tampa, Miami and Atlanta, you've got a five city natural local tie in. By making connections like this ahead of time, you'll get better markets and more placements. By identifying the natural ties of your spokespeople you can start strategizing stories before they happen.

Once you're newsworthy, what then? You've got to plan out the best possible interview in all the ways you can control.

1. Good Visuals
2. Good Timing
3. Aggregate Markets
4. Good Planning

Good Visuals
When an organization treats television news like radio news by offering up an interview and nothing else, that organization can expect a lot of rejection. TV producers are less likely to book interviews that don't take advantage of the visual medium that is television, and while two people talking might be considered by some to be a visual in itself, TV producers don't consider it a visual (unless the guest is a great looking celebrity). With good visuals, which include both stills and moving video, you'll have a much better chance of booking that interview since you'll be taking advantage of how television is different from radio or newspapers. When you think about what the news producer needs, when you help them look good, they're much more likely to help you out as well. So... how do you get great visuals? There are two ways: 1) using b-roll and 2) using an on-location shot.

Good Visuals: B-Roll
B-Roll is the term newsrooms call the accompanying video that brings the story to life - visually - that runs during your interview. While the news anchor and guest are talking, the news producer can switch back and forth between the interview and the b-roll video. Since people generally understand things better with a visual, this helps viewers get a better understanding of what the story is trying to convey.

Getting great b-roll is a balancing act between the details of the story (which people don't know and makes up the "news" part) and the laypersons idea of what the story is trying to communicate. Any media relations consultant can help with this since they're outside of your organization and oftentimes have a clearer understanding of what people only think they know about you and your organization. This is a great time to pair up your communications team with the outside media relations team and get creative.

For an example of how b-roll can help a story, imagine that you have a medical story that deals with a new drug therapy where people have to take a pill from time to time. Having a still image of the pill certainly will help people know what the pill looks like, as well it will tell them that the treatment is in pill form. But moving video of people in lab coats, in a sterile and white laboratory, taking measurements from beakers with different colored liquids, then more video showing the pill production facility where millions of pills are being made tells a viewer that these pills are scientifically designed by intelligent people and there's a lot of the treatment to go around in order to make them feel better. All of a sudden the b-roll has increased the credibility of the interview by merely showing people who look really smart in an environment where most people think smart people work. With increased credibility comes a larger market and fewer skeptics, which in the end results in greater sales (if that's what your organization is after). Another aspect of b-roll to point out here is that sales might also mean votes, or education on a new way to live better, or many other end-results that an organization might be after.

Good Visuals: Live On-Location Shots
Live on-location shots take place outside of the studio. The location can be anywhere a satellite truck can get to and "see" a communications satellite, which is virtually anywhere in the country. These shots need to be located in a place that makes sense to the story and can be designed to elicit the desired emotion of your communication goals, from serious and somber to fun and upbeat. The great thing about on-location shots is that you have complete control over the setting. You can use natural surroundings or you can place props and other visuals in the shot to enhance the effect. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, in Washington DC, used the live on-location shot with incredible success. For the 100 year anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight, the museum took the original Wright Flyer and moved it to its own exhibit. To let the country know that, for the first time since 1948, people could see the Wright Flyer at eye-level, the museum sat their guest in a camera shot with the actual airplane as part of the shot. News producers all over the country loved it and were eager to book.

The Hierarchy of Visuals (from doing very little to doing a lot):

1. In studio with a black background
2. In studio with a backdrop (can be bookshelves or a photographic backdrop)
3. In studio with a backdrop and b-roll
4. On-Location
5. On-Location with b-roll

Good Timing
Another important consideration is controlling the timing of your news. Your first consideration should be the general news cycle. Certain events happen on an annual basis that make it difficult to get on the news. Holidays, important media events such as the various awards shows, popular sporting events such as the Superbowl or the Olympics and political election tend to bump soft news stories. Your media relations firm can help you with this schedule. Summertime is often a great time for soft news stories, and don't forget the end of summer when, all through August, the United States Congress goes on recess and usually the president goes on vacation. This is a time that is almost completely clear of political news. Nevertheless, there are holes in the natural schedule all throughout the year, and these are what you should be planning for.

Aggregate Markets
When thinking about where you want to be seen - and where you want to put your resources in booking - remember that everyone wants New York and LA. While this us understandable, these markets books stories with the same heavy criteria that the national and 24 hour news channels do, yet they only have a couple slots to fill as opposed to the 24 hour news channels who have a lot more room. This makes these major markets incredibly tough to book, and if you don't have a super local tie-in on an incredible story, the likelihood of booking these cities is pretty low. Also, remember that these newsrooms, along with the nationals and the 24 hour cable stations, often don't book until the day before or the day of, so don't look for them to come on board when booking starts. These stations are always holding out for the best story they can get, and therefore it is incredibly rare that they commit themselves to doing a story in the future. That being said, look to other markets to fill in the schedule. Oftentimes these markets can provide larger audience figures via aggregate than a couple of hits just the large markets (which is a risky strategy). Add an extra hour onto your SMT and try to book smaller markets and get a good geographic sampling of the entire country. Also, some of the smaller stations, or regional news programs, like to run an interview multiple times, which can dramatically increase your audience size. Further, statewide cable news programs usually have the largest audiences and eclipse New York and LA since they are piped into the homes of every cable subscriber in the state. Florida News Channel, in 2003, had roughly one million viewers at almost any time slot during the day. Multiple hits on stations like these can have a dramatic effect on your reach.

Good Planning
And last but not least, plan ahead. Booking a good SMT takes six to eight weeks - so give it eight. That means you'll have to plan your story a number of months out before you want it to air - and this means being in tune with your organization's projects. Bring in a good media relations consultant at least once a year and let them in on what you're doing - even if they have to sign confidentiality agreements. This is an expense that yields a report that is highly valuable and detailed for your organization.

These are the basic building blocks of using television in a successful way. Once you've got a handle on this, the next step is to take the plunge and try a satellite media tour, and watch as tons of people listen to, and see, what you've got to say.

For any questions regarding this paper, or satellite media tours in general, please contact Buzz Media at info@buzzmediapr.com. If you're interested in setting up a satellite media tour, please e-mail Duane Homan at duane@buzzmediapr.com.