Identifying who to approach with your story
There are a wide range of publications who are looking for news and stories. It could be anything from your local radio station to a national newspaper, but these platforms are speaking to thousands of people. If you can get them to share your story too then it can bring you huge exposure.
Start by working out which publications are going to be interested in your story. Have a look at what they are writing about and who their audience is. If you are publishing a new vegan children’s book then Vegconomist (who write about vegan business trends and business innovation) are unlikely to be the right place for your story. But just because you have a vegan business don’t think that it will only be of interest to vegan readers. The rise of the plant-based sector is huge news right now. People don’t have to be your target customer to be interested in your story, and it’s amazing how many times a non-vegan friend or family member will send me a link to a news story just because it features a vegan company. Online specialist news outlets like Plant Based News and Veg News will be more likely to share a story about a vegan company. Magazines like The Vegan from The Vegan Society or Vegan Food & Living might give you a few lines in their latest news section. However, if you want to be really featured and have a full article written about you then you need to have something more than just having a new business or product to get their attention.
And if you DO have something more, then why not go bigger with it? How many times have you picked up a national newspaper or magazine and read a story about an everyday person like yourself who has done something remarkable? Find publications who publish stories about people like you and get them in your sights. Caroline Burgess-Pike from Eden Green PR specialises in getting vegan businesses in the news and has a great tip when researching which journalists to approach. Her tip is to search for vegan news stories on national newspapers’ websites and when you find them, click on the writer’s name at the top of the article to see what other articles they have written. Find a journalist who seems to be open to writing about vegan stories. Or, if you make vegan trainers and you are going to run a marathon a day for a week to raise money for your local animal shelter (and awareness of your new vegan running shoes) then find the journalist who has written about running marathons before. Reference their previous articles when you contact them because everyone likes to know people are seeing their work. Approaching a journalist direct with a story, when you know there’s a good chance they will be interested in it personally, will get a far better result than just emailing the generic news desk email address with a press release.
Also be aware of timings. Newspapers and online news sources constantly put out stories, but magazines work in cycles. If you try to contact them a couple of days before their print deadline you might struggle to get a response; so, as you build up a relationship with them get to know when their deadlines are. Also, be aware that magazines work two or three months in advance. So if you have a Christmas-related story you need to be talking to editors about it during August and September.
