Earned Media and Press

The full media-relations craft: what makes a story, how to pitch it, and why coverage is credibility, not a crowd.

There’s an old rule in the news business that the paper doesn’t owe you coverage. It’s a good rule to start with, because it changes the question. You’re not asking a reporter for a favor. You’re offering them something that might be useful to their readers, and the reporter decides whether it is. Most pitches fail not because the reporter is unfriendly, but because the pitch was about the business and not about the reader. That simple shift, from what you want to say to what a reader would want to know, is most of the craft of earned media.

Earned media is the attention you get without paying for it, and it comes with a particular kind of power. When a newspaper, a radio host, or a local blog says your room is worth a visit, a stranger hears that as a third party’s opinion, not your advertising. That’s the credibility Chapter 6 described, and it’s why a short feature can do more than a big ad. But there’s a catch worth stating up front. Coverage rarely fills a room on its own. It builds the kind of trust that makes the rest of your work believable. Coverage also lasts. A good article keeps working as proof for months, in a one-sheet, on the wall, and in the next pitch.

Four tactics from Volumes One through Four are filed here: the local angle, the pressworthy angle, the earned attention ladder, and the offline pitch. The family is small, but the discipline is large, so this chapter teaches the whole craft: what makes a story, how to write a pitch and a release, how to treat a reporter, and how to count what comes back. Appendix H gives you fill-in templates for all of it. Earned media is one of the smaller chapters in this book by tactic count, but it carries outsized weight with strangers, so it gets the same care as the others.

PR TACTIC: The Reader Sentence

What it is: Before you pitch anyone, finish this sentence: “This matters to your readers because…”

Why it works: A reporter serves readers or listeners, and a pitch that starts with their interest gets read while a pitch that starts with yours gets deleted.

Try this: Write the sentence for your next piece of news. If you can’t finish it without using the word “we,” you don’t have a story yet.

15.1 What Makes a Story, and Who Decides

Journalists judge a story by a handful of long-standing values, and they’re worth knowing because they decide what gets covered. Is it new or timely? Does it matter to people nearby? Does it involve people the audience knows or cares about? Is there a conflict, a surprise, or a human moment? Does it tell the reader something about how their community is changing? A new Thursday night rarely clears any of those bars. A fifty-year-old dancehall reopening after a flood, a waitress who has served the same booth for thirty years, or the last night of a floor that’s being replaced, clear several. Two other values matter for local outlets: a human face and a good picture. An editor can sell a story about a person more easily than one about a business, and a story with a strong photo is easier to place than one without. Offer both.

That’s why Volume One’s Local Angle turns venue news into a story a local outlet can understand quickly, using a single sentence to start: this matters to the town because… The key is the word town. A local outlet is serving a place, and your news only matters to it if it matters to the place. Volume Two’s Pressworthy Angle goes further, saying to pitch the night through a human, cultural, or community angle instead of only a date and lineup, and to look for a comeback, a tradition, a new scene, a milestone, or an unusual collaboration. These aren’t tricks. They’re the real reasons a stranger would care. Notice what isn’t on the list: your new logo, your new website, a sale on drinks, or the fact that you have a great floor. Those may matter to you, but they don’t pass the stranger test on their own. If the only news is a promotion, it belongs in your owned channels, not in a pitch.

The reporter, host, or editor is the one who decides, and they’re busy. Most local reporters cover several subjects, write fast, and see dozens of pitches a day. They remember the people who make their work easier: those who send something clear, accurate, and relevant, and who don’t call to ask why it wasn’t covered. Start from respect for that. Learn who covers what, read a few of their recent pieces, and pitch only what fits. A small number of well-aimed pitches does more than a mass email to every address you can find. Being useful to reporters between stories also helps. Answering a quick question about the local music scene, pointing them to a source, or confirming a fact on a deadline builds the kind of goodwill that makes your next pitch get read. Keep a short note of each reporter’s beat, their deadlines if you learn them, and how they prefer to be reached. That note turns a cold pitch into a warm one.

STORY ANGLES THAT FIT A HONKY TONK

A milestone: an anniversary, the thousandth lesson, the last night on an old floor.

A comeback: reopening after a storm, a fire, or a closure.

A person: the longest-serving bartender, a teacher who has taught three generations, a band that started on your stage.

A first or a last: the first all-ages afternoon dance, the last show of a retiring act.

A local tie: a fundraiser with the fire department, a recipe from a nearby farm, a dance tradition with roots in the county.

A trend with a local face: young people learning to two-step, told through one real student.

Every angle still needs facts you can check and a person who will talk.

15.2 Building Credibility in Steps

Volume Three’s Earned Attention Ladder builds credibility in steps before asking for bigger coverage: list five realistic outlets or curators, then pitch from smallest fit to largest fit. The logic is that coverage compounds. A mention in a community newsletter becomes a clip you can show a radio host. A radio spot becomes a line in the pitch to the regional paper. Each rung gives the next one something to point to. Skipping the ladder and pitching a big outlet cold is like asking a stranger for a loan. A record of smaller, real coverage is what makes the larger request believable. Each step on the ladder also produces something you can use: a quote, a clip, an article, an interview. Collect them in the proof file from Chapter 6, because the next outlet will want to see that someone else took you seriously first. Read the outlet before you pitch it. A reporter who writes about food won’t cover a fiddle contest, and a podcast about history won’t want a drink special. Matching the pitch to what the person already covers is the single biggest improvement most rooms can make.

Choose the ladder by fit, not prestige. A small podcast that a hundred of your exact guests listen to may be worth more than a large outlet whose readers will never drive to your town. List the outlets within your reach: the weekly paper, the daily, the community Facebook page, the college radio station, a regional music blog, a podcast about Texas dancehalls, a chamber of commerce newsletter. Sort them by how well their audience matches yours and how likely they are to say yes, and start at the top of both lists. Keep a simple tracker, since you’ll want to know who you’ve contacted and when. Your tracker can be five columns: outlet, contact, what they cover, last contact, and result. Over a year, it becomes a short list of people who know you, which is far more valuable than a long list of addresses.

Volume Four’s Offline Pitch uses the credibility of the room and the craft to earn attention beyond platforms, with an exercise of pitching one local outlet, podcast, or partner around a specific angle: the bartender as keeper of the room. It shows that the ladder works for individuals as well. A bartender with a real angle and real craft has a story that a local paper may want, and one that the room’s owner will also be glad to see. In each case, the pitch is a human story with a place attached, and it comes from someone who has something real to show. Earned attention also includes the trade: a feature in a dance community newsletter, a mention by a regional music blog, an interview with a teacher on a podcast about partner dancing. These reach smaller audiences with higher interest, and they often lead to the larger stories. Trade outlets also tend to keep stories online longer, which makes them useful proof for years.

15.3 The Pitch, the Release, and the Follow-Up

A pitch is a short note to one person. It has a subject line that says what the story is, an opening sentence that gives the reader a reason, two or three facts, the date and place, and an offer: photos, an interview, a visit. It runs under two hundred words. Write it to a named person, mention something they’ve covered, and make it easy to say yes. Don’t attach large files, and don’t send the same message to forty people with the names swapped. Reporters notice. Appendix H has a template, and the Reader Sentence at the top of this chapter is the best first draft of the opening. Timing matters. Local outlets usually need time to plan features, so a pitch about a milestone or an event should go out weeks before, not the day before. Breaking news, like a reopening after storm damage, can go the same day, with photos and a contact who will pick up. If you don’t hear back, that is usually a no for now, not a no forever. Try the same reporter again in a few months with a different, stronger angle.

A press release is a different tool, and it’s often overused. It’s a short, factual document with the news at the top, who, what, when, where, and why, a quote or two, and contact details. Use one when an outlet will want the details in a standard form, for an announcement, a date change, or an event. Don’t use one as a pitch. A release without a note to a specific person is likely to sit unread. Keep the quotes real. Never put words in someone’s mouth they haven’t approved, and never invent a quote or attribute one to a named person who didn’t say it. Keep the release short enough to read on a phone, with the facts a reporter would need to write a brief without calling you. Many local outlets will run a short item from a clear release, and a clear release makes a feature pitch easier to accept later. When you send a release, paste it into the body of the email as well as attaching it. Many people won’t open attachments from senders they don’t know.

Follow up once, a few days later, with something new if you have it. If the answer is no or nothing, thank them and move on. Keep the door open. Reporters often come back to people who were polite, accurate, and easy to reach. If you do get coverage, thank the reporter, share it, and check it for errors. If there’s a factual mistake, ask politely for a correction and don’t argue about tone. Treat every contact as part of the long relationship from Chapter 12, because the reporter you were kind to this year may be the one you need next year. If a story contains a mistake, ask for a correction politely and only for errors of fact, such as a wrong date, a misspelled name, or a wrong address. Disagreements about emphasis are part of the price of earned media.

WHAT A REPORTER NEEDS FROM YOU

The facts, checked: names spelled right, dates, times, address, prices.

A person to talk to: someone who can answer questions and picks up the phone.

A picture: two or three good photos they may use, with the photographer’s name for credit.

A reason it matters now: the milestone, the change, the first or last time.

Respect for the deadline: a fast answer, even if the answer is “I’ll find out by three.”

15.4 Coverage Is Credibility, Not a Crowd

The biggest mistake with press is expecting it to fill the room. Coverage works differently from a promotion. A good piece builds trust with strangers, gives you something to show bookers and sponsors, and is permanent in a way a post is not. But the readers who see it rarely act the same night. Treat it as a long-term asset: use the clip on your site, in your one-sheet, and in future pitches. Send it to the list. Frame it on the wall. The audience that sees it a month later, as proof, may matter more than the one that saw it that morning. Use the coverage in ways the outlet would be glad to see. Link to the article, quote a line with credit, and thank the reporter publicly. Don’t copy the whole article onto your site without permission, and don’t edit quotes to sound better than they were.

That’s also why you shouldn’t judge a placement by one night’s door count. A fairer test looks at the days around it: did the number of searches for your name go up, did your map listing get more views, did your page get visits from the outlet’s link, and did a few new guests say they read about you? Chapter 28 explains each of these. Be modest about what they prove. A story that runs on a quiet week may look more powerful than one on a busy week, and a good article may simply arrive at the same time as a holiday. When you can, add a question to the door card for the month after a story runs, such as “Did you read about us in the paper?” A handful of yeses is modest evidence, and it’s better than guessing.

And be honest in what you claim. “As seen in” is only fair if you were in it. “Featured” means a feature, not a listing. If a paid or sponsored placement is made to look like independent coverage, say so; Federal Trade Commission rules and basic fairness both call for clear disclosure. A reputation for honest press use makes the next pitch easier. A single exaggerated claim can undo years of goodwill with a local editor, who has a long memory and a short list of people they trust. Paid placements that look like news are sometimes called advertorials. They can be fine, but they should be labeled as paid, both by the outlet and by you when you share them. The FTC’s guidance on endorsements and native advertising is the place to check, and Appendix J says who to ask. The same honesty applies to numbers in a pitch. If you say three hundred people came, be ready to show a door count.

15.5 Counting What Comes Back

Press has a funnel too, and it’s smaller than the guest funnel: pitches sent, replies, placements, and what follows each placement. Keep one line per pitch in a notebook or spreadsheet: outlet, person, date, angle, reply, result. At the end of the quarter, divide replies by pitches and placements by replies. Add the days from the placement to the next time you checked your searches, map views, and referrals. Over a year, you’ll learn which outlets, which angles, and which kinds of news worked. Most small rooms never write this down, which is why they keep repeating the pitches that didn’t. Track the quality of each placement, not just the count. A feature with photos in the paper your guests read is different from a one-line listing in a calendar. Chapter 28 suggests a simple weighting so that a long list of small mentions doesn’t look more impressive than one strong story. Count replies even when they’re a polite no. A reporter who replies has read the pitch, which is the first step toward a yes on a later story.

After a placement, look at the numbers for three windows: the day of, the week of, and the month of. Compare branded searches, map views, site visits from the outlet’s link, and first-timers who mention it, against a normal week. Because baseline swing is real, as Chapter 21 explained, a small bump may be nothing. A large, sustained one is a result. Either way, write it down, because the next pitch should draw on what you learned. Chapter 28 gives you a one-page tracker. Keep the windows the same each time, so you can compare one story with another. Also note what else was happening, such as holidays, weather, or other promotions, so that a coincidence isn’t mistaken for a result.

The point of counting isn’t to prove press was worth the effort. It’s to decide where the next hour goes. If three of four placements came from the weekly paper and none from the daily, you know where to aim. If every placement came from stories with a community angle and none from lineup announcements, you know what to write. And if nothing came back, that’s information too: try a different angle or a smaller outlet. Press is a craft that improves with feedback, and the feedback is the log. Review the log twice a year with whoever does the pitching. Decide which outlets to keep, which angles to retire, and which new outlets to try. That review is the earned-media version of the keep, fix, or kill decision in Chapter 34.

A PRESS LOG IN SIX COLUMNS

Date · Outlet and contact · Angle · Result (no reply, declined, placed) · Kind of placement (feature, brief, listing, interview) · What followed (searches, map views, cards at the door, bookings).

Fill in the last column a month after each placement. After a year, sort by angle and by outlet. You’ll see quickly which stories your local outlets want and which they never will, and your next year of pitching will be half as long and twice as useful.

THE 4 TACTICS FILED HERE

Only four tactics sit in this family, but each is a full craft. Here is where each came from, how it tends to break, and the one number to watch.

• The Local Angle. From: Vol 1, Ch 23. How it fails: The sentence ends with “we” instead of “the town,” so the story is about the business and nobody else. The number: Pitches sent; placements.
• The Pressworthy Angle. From: Vol 2, Ch 31. How it fails: The angle is invented to fit a pitch, and a reporter checks it in one call. The number: Pitch reply rate; placements.
• Earned Attention Ladder. From: Vol 3, Ch 10. How it fails: The ladder is skipped for a big outlet, which declines, and the owner decides press does not work. The number: Placements per rung.
• Offline Pitch. From: Vol 4, Ch 26. How it fails: The pitch centers on the bartender’s brand, not a story the outlet’s readers would want. The number: Referral traffic and branded searches after coverage.

CASE STUDY

Twelve Pitches

Imelda owns a small dancehall that is replacing its original floor after sixty years. She lists twelve outlets, sorted by fit: three community newsletters, two radio shows, a weekly paper, a regional music blog, a podcast on Texas history, a college station, a county tourism page, and two daily papers. She pitches the floor as a story, “the last dance on the old boards,” to each, with a one-line Reader Sentence.

Step 1 — Replies. Of 12 pitches, 7 reply. 7 ÷ 12 = 58%.

Step 2 — Placements. 4 of the 7 run something: a newsletter item, a radio mention, the weekly paper, and the podcast. 4 ÷ 7 = 57% of replies, 4 ÷ 12 = 33% of pitches. Neither daily paper replies.

Step 3 — What follows. Her normal week has 20 branded searches and 15 map views. The week of the weekly-paper piece shows 38 searches and 29 map views. That is 38 − 20 = 18 more searches (90% higher) and 29 − 15 = 14 more views (93% higher). Four first-timers mention the article. But the same week included the final dance on the old floor, which she also posted about, so she can’t give the paper all the credit.

Step 4 — What she keeps. The ladder worked in order: the smaller outlets said yes and the dailies did not. She keeps the clips for the next pitch, and she pitches the daily again after the reopening, with the earlier coverage attached. All figures are illustrative.

REAL TALK

From behind the bar:

I pitched the paper four times with a story about me. Nothing. Then I pitched a story about the bar top being refinished from the same pine as the old church pews it came from. They called back in an hour. I’d been selling myself and they wanted the bar.

HEADS UP

Press work touches several legal areas. Statements about people or businesses can raise defamation concerns, and quoting someone requires their approval. Sponsored or paid placements must be disclosed clearly under Federal Trade Commission rules, and claims in a release such as “best,” “first,” or “only” must be provable. Giving away alcohol or tickets to press has its own rules in Texas under the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. This is general information, not legal advice. Have a licensed Texas attorney review any release that makes claims about others or about alcohol, and see Appendix H and Appendix J.

MEASURE IT

The number: The press funnel: pitches sent, replies, placements, and the change in branded searches, map views, and referral visits in the days after each placement.

By hand: Keep a log with one line per pitch: outlet, person, date, angle, reply, result. Divide replies by pitches and placements by replies. After each placement, write down your normal-week searches and map views, then the numbers for the day, week, and month after. Example: 38 searches against a normal 20 is 18 more.

Watch out: One bump is not proof. Compare with your normal swing and note anything else that happened the same week.

Go deeper: Chapter 28 (measuring earned media and reputation) and Appendix H (pitch and release templates).

ROLE BOX

• Owner: Find the town angle for your news and pitch from smallest to largest fit. Keep every clip in the proof file.
• Booker: Pitch the night through a human angle, not just the lineup, and give the outlet the artist’s story with permission.
• Musician: List five realistic outlets or curators and climb the ladder. Lead with a story about the music’s place, not your résumé.
• Bartender: Pitch one local outlet or podcast on a specific angle, such as the bartender as keeper of the room. Coordinate with the owner first.
• Dance Teacher: Pitch the tradition and the people, not the class schedule. Check historical claims before they go in print.

TALK ABOUT IT

• What is the one story about your place that people who’ve never heard of you would care about?
• Which five outlets could realistically cover you? Who has already, and have you thanked them?
• If a reporter called tomorrow, what would you hand them in the first ten minutes?