8 - Getting it out there
Once you have your release written agreed and ready to go, you come to the important bit – getting it in front of your target audience. I am presuming that this will be science correspondents on national papers, radio, TV, Web sites - and in your local region.
In a large institution, this function will be the responsibility of the media relations officer in your External Relations department. Corporate bodies have rules about making public statements, and you will be aware of these in those with stronger command structures. In corporate bodies with weak command structures, such as the so-called “old” universities, where staff may not be as aware of their duties as employees, it is important to find out about them to avoid major grief later. Nothing annoys the VC more than private-enterprise PR work by staff in the university's labs. And you will seriously disgruntle your press officer too, which is perhaps more important because he or she is in a position to help, and should be kept on-side. So – my advice is – in the first instance, find out who your institutional press officer is, and talk to them.
If you are publishing a paper, then the rights to the public relations activity associated with it fall firstly to the journal. If you are publishing in Nature or Science, they will make you forcibly aware of this. Other more specialist journals will not be so clued up, nor will they necessarily have media relations staff to handle such things. But they might. So once again, before doing anything, speak to your staff editor.
Ideally, your journal’s press officer will communicate with your institution’s press officer, so that the institution has an input to the release, approves the result and the level of credit given, and everyone is happy. Or possibly the journal will not consider your paper newsworthy enough to be worth the effort, but will then hand over to the more optimistic (and perhaps better staffed) institutional press office to have a go.
However, the rules of this part of the game are simple – see what help is to hand, keep the professionals on the staff informed and on side, and defer to them in all things except (of course) matters of science. But what if you look and find that you really are alone in the universe? Can you promote your work yourself?
Well of course you can; and it has become much easier to do this now, with the use of the Web to disseminate media information, than it was only quite recently. But before I tell you how to do it yourself, this is how a pro would do it without the aid of newfangled shortcuts.
First, an institutional media relations officer should be well known to and respected by the specialist journalists who cover science. This is essential because a real press officer will be able to call or email writers he or she knows personally – thus gaining access to a group of people who are so overloaded with information – almost all of it rubbish – that they are extremely defensive of their time and attention, and do not bestow either lightly.
For a university, this is also quite a tall order because science is only one of the beats whose journalists a press officer will need to know about.
The reason we do not, for example, provide a list of named contacts at various news outlets like newspapers and so forth, is because keeping track of all these folk as they switch beats and move from one paper to another is a daunting task that is in itself practically a full time job. Even press officers have to rely upon a trusted media directory, probably updated every month, the subscription to which will be horrendously expensive – but worth it. Sophisticated CD-Rom directories can nowadays generate press lists for a range of criteria more or less at the touch of a button – and for the payment of very large wads of cash.
That said, though, no database can ever replace the most important element in media work, which is knowing people personally.
So, assuming you have a list of a few hundred science journalists in all your favoured news outlets, covering a wide range of media (radio, TV, print, Web) and divided between national and regional, and including the news agencies – what next?
In the old days, you mailed your printed release to arrive (along with about a million others) on the journalist’s desk on the right day. You might then follow it up with a telephone call. This involved small armies of stuffers around a collating table in a post room, with labels, envelopes, and a franking machine. Some of us can also remember the smell of the Roneo or Gestetner machine that could be heard shaking itself to bits in the corner.
Later, through the 1980s, the FAX machine became the weapon of choice for press officers and journalists alike. At first this involved a press office minion standing over the hot fax machine all afternoon, dialling individual numbers. Then there were programmable faxes, with little memories; once scanned in, the machine could be left to chunter away on its own, redialling (five times) all those numbers it found to be busy. However, a follow-up phone call was still always advisable, because faxes had a funny habit of rolling up into tubes and falling down the backs of cabinets.
Then, from the mid 1990s, the Web really began to mean something; not only as a distribution mechanism, but as a news outlet in its own right. Now, nobody would dream of not making electronic copy available. It would be suicide.
And I recently threw my fax machine away.
Now the situation is much simpler and cheaper and more devolved. Now, there are special web sites for science journalists, where news providers (who can be individuals or institutions) post releases. The Web site then emails all those people with an expressed interest in that field, telling them about it and replacing that troublesome personal follow-up phonecall. If the release is embargoed, only accredited journalists registered with the site can view the material, in a secure area. To be registered, all journalists have to provide the Site with their bona fides.
Another advantage for the scientist wishing to promote their own work (apart from the ease and convenience of the whole process) is that submission is driven by special online forms that ensure you have all the required information in the right places. So, if you have written your release according to the instructions in Lessons 1 through 7, all you will need to do (once you have registered with the Site as a provider) is to cut and paste it into the boxes provided.
On submission, you receive two emails - one to say it is being looked at by the site editors, and another when it goes live. You also get a chance to see what the release will look like, before pressing the “submit” button.
There are two main Web sites offering this service. One, AlphaGalileo, is a European initiative, and (unusually for such initiatives) one that started here in the UK. It posts in Greenwich Mean Time. The other is American and is called Eurekalert, and typically posts in US Eastern Standard Time. This is run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was the first in the field.
Lastly, for a novice, there is yet another advantage of using these services. If any of the journalists registered with these sites is naughty and breaks an embargo, it is not long before – if they look up at the right moment – they will witness a ton of bricks descending upon them from a great height. In cases of extreme naughtiness the sites can use the ultimate sanction - putting entire newsrooms into a sin bin and denying any journalists from that paper (or group) access for a certain period. This has happened; it's not frequent, but everyone now knows they mean it.
To find out about these services, you should visit them and take a tour. Their URLS are:
Alphagalileo – www.alphagalileo.org
Eurekalert – www.eurekalert.com
To find out more about science writers an science writing, visit the Web site of their natuonal body - the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) on www.absw.org.uk
Finally, don’t forget – if you want to play the media game, remember it is their game, and they own the ball. They won’t change their ways just for you, just for science, or indeed for just about anyone. Success in the media comes with learning to work with it, and learning to live with its limitations – and those it reveals in you.
In a large institution, this function will be the responsibility of the media relations officer in your External Relations department. Corporate bodies have rules about making public statements, and you will be aware of these in those with stronger command structures. In corporate bodies with weak command structures, such as the so-called “old” universities, where staff may not be as aware of their duties as employees, it is important to find out about them to avoid major grief later. Nothing annoys the VC more than private-enterprise PR work by staff in the university's labs. And you will seriously disgruntle your press officer too, which is perhaps more important because he or she is in a position to help, and should be kept on-side. So – my advice is – in the first instance, find out who your institutional press officer is, and talk to them.
If you are publishing a paper, then the rights to the public relations activity associated with it fall firstly to the journal. If you are publishing in Nature or Science, they will make you forcibly aware of this. Other more specialist journals will not be so clued up, nor will they necessarily have media relations staff to handle such things. But they might. So once again, before doing anything, speak to your staff editor.
Ideally, your journal’s press officer will communicate with your institution’s press officer, so that the institution has an input to the release, approves the result and the level of credit given, and everyone is happy. Or possibly the journal will not consider your paper newsworthy enough to be worth the effort, but will then hand over to the more optimistic (and perhaps better staffed) institutional press office to have a go.
However, the rules of this part of the game are simple – see what help is to hand, keep the professionals on the staff informed and on side, and defer to them in all things except (of course) matters of science. But what if you look and find that you really are alone in the universe? Can you promote your work yourself?
Doing it professionally
Well of course you can; and it has become much easier to do this now, with the use of the Web to disseminate media information, than it was only quite recently. But before I tell you how to do it yourself, this is how a pro would do it without the aid of newfangled shortcuts.First, an institutional media relations officer should be well known to and respected by the specialist journalists who cover science. This is essential because a real press officer will be able to call or email writers he or she knows personally – thus gaining access to a group of people who are so overloaded with information – almost all of it rubbish – that they are extremely defensive of their time and attention, and do not bestow either lightly.
For a university, this is also quite a tall order because science is only one of the beats whose journalists a press officer will need to know about.
Why no contact list?
The reason we do not, for example, provide a list of named contacts at various news outlets like newspapers and so forth, is because keeping track of all these folk as they switch beats and move from one paper to another is a daunting task that is in itself practically a full time job. Even press officers have to rely upon a trusted media directory, probably updated every month, the subscription to which will be horrendously expensive – but worth it. Sophisticated CD-Rom directories can nowadays generate press lists for a range of criteria more or less at the touch of a button – and for the payment of very large wads of cash.That said, though, no database can ever replace the most important element in media work, which is knowing people personally.
“Getting the message across”
So, assuming you have a list of a few hundred science journalists in all your favoured news outlets, covering a wide range of media (radio, TV, print, Web) and divided between national and regional, and including the news agencies – what next?In the old days, you mailed your printed release to arrive (along with about a million others) on the journalist’s desk on the right day. You might then follow it up with a telephone call. This involved small armies of stuffers around a collating table in a post room, with labels, envelopes, and a franking machine. Some of us can also remember the smell of the Roneo or Gestetner machine that could be heard shaking itself to bits in the corner.
Later, through the 1980s, the FAX machine became the weapon of choice for press officers and journalists alike. At first this involved a press office minion standing over the hot fax machine all afternoon, dialling individual numbers. Then there were programmable faxes, with little memories; once scanned in, the machine could be left to chunter away on its own, redialling (five times) all those numbers it found to be busy. However, a follow-up phone call was still always advisable, because faxes had a funny habit of rolling up into tubes and falling down the backs of cabinets.
Then, from the mid 1990s, the Web really began to mean something; not only as a distribution mechanism, but as a news outlet in its own right. Now, nobody would dream of not making electronic copy available. It would be suicide.
And I recently threw my fax machine away.
Getting journalists to come to you
Now the situation is much simpler and cheaper and more devolved. Now, there are special web sites for science journalists, where news providers (who can be individuals or institutions) post releases. The Web site then emails all those people with an expressed interest in that field, telling them about it and replacing that troublesome personal follow-up phonecall. If the release is embargoed, only accredited journalists registered with the site can view the material, in a secure area. To be registered, all journalists have to provide the Site with their bona fides.Another advantage for the scientist wishing to promote their own work (apart from the ease and convenience of the whole process) is that submission is driven by special online forms that ensure you have all the required information in the right places. So, if you have written your release according to the instructions in Lessons 1 through 7, all you will need to do (once you have registered with the Site as a provider) is to cut and paste it into the boxes provided.
On submission, you receive two emails - one to say it is being looked at by the site editors, and another when it goes live. You also get a chance to see what the release will look like, before pressing the “submit” button.
There are two main Web sites offering this service. One, AlphaGalileo, is a European initiative, and (unusually for such initiatives) one that started here in the UK. It posts in Greenwich Mean Time. The other is American and is called Eurekalert, and typically posts in US Eastern Standard Time. This is run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was the first in the field.
Lastly, for a novice, there is yet another advantage of using these services. If any of the journalists registered with these sites is naughty and breaks an embargo, it is not long before – if they look up at the right moment – they will witness a ton of bricks descending upon them from a great height. In cases of extreme naughtiness the sites can use the ultimate sanction - putting entire newsrooms into a sin bin and denying any journalists from that paper (or group) access for a certain period. This has happened; it's not frequent, but everyone now knows they mean it.
To find out about these services, you should visit them and take a tour. Their URLS are:
Alphagalileo – www.alphagalileo.org
Eurekalert – www.eurekalert.com
To find out more about science writers an science writing, visit the Web site of their natuonal body - the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) on www.absw.org.uk
Finally, don’t forget – if you want to play the media game, remember it is their game, and they own the ball. They won’t change their ways just for you, just for science, or indeed for just about anyone. Success in the media comes with learning to work with it, and learning to live with its limitations – and those it reveals in you.