Every brand wants to be in the New York Times or on Good Morning America but sometimes those aren’t the best news outlets for your targeted exposure.
I wrote an article for Entrepreneur recently that explores when smaller news outlets might bring more targeted exposure. You can read that story here.
Many times, clients will suggest we turn down a smaller publication because they have their hearts set on these larger news organizations. If you’re a startup, you should be accepting all media opportunities — big and small. Your story hasn’t been told as a startup and every media opportunity is a chance to scale your brand. These news stories also help your website with SEO.
Many Smaller News Publications Syndicate Content
Here’s another reason why you should speak with smaller organizations. Today, many smaller organizations syndicate their content to MSN and Yahoo. And I’m not talking about getting into their news search. I’m referring to the search engines repackaging the stories under their own brand.
This syndication approach also applies to TV. Don’t assume a TV segment in St. Louis won’t reach your potential audience. Local TV features are placed on the affiliate feeds all the time and shared with the rest of the country. As a line producer in Phoenix, I turned to ABC NewsOne to find promotable ideas. As a publicist, I’ve also seen clients’ stories go national as local TV affiliates picked up the story and broadcast it.
Journalists with Larger News Organizations Read Smaller Competitors
When I was with NBC and CBS in New York, I always looked to the suburban TV news groups to see what they were covering. Sometimes, they find the better stories first. And if it’s a story that can scale to a larger audience, many larger news organizations will rerun the story.
When I was producer in Phoenix, we ran a story on a local parking ordinance that required businesses to have a specific width for each parking spot. Our story uncovered popular public parking lots where the spots were too small. As a result, cars were getting dinged. That was a local story but I pursued that same story as an investigative producer with American Journal.
If a story is places on the smaller news outlets, you are effectively pitching journalists and producers at their larger competitors.
Interested in hearing which news organization is right for your brand? Click here to get a free PR estimate.
ABOUT MACIAS PR
Marketing peers named MACIAS PR the 2017-2020 Strategic PR Firm of the Year. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the Financial PR Firm of the Year. The founder – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. City & State Magazine named him a PR Political Power Player in New York