Journalists are good at very many things – but talking positively about what they do isn’t always one of them.
The vast majority of reporters and editors work with a level of integrity and determination that belies the level of distrust members of the public have towards those in the industry.
Most, not all, local and regional newsrooms have a strategy predicated on volume. Among the lesser-discussed flaws of that plan is that teams are rarely afforded the space to sit back and shout about the work they are truly proud of.
This isn’t a problem exclusive to journalism, and given the naturally fast-paced nature of news that isn’t new to this century it’s understandable, but there’s little doubt to me that the majority of industries are better at touting their best work. That’s reflected in how trusted journalists are compared to other trades – the battle for public perception is being lost, more often than not.
And, at least to some extent, that’s why instead of readers focusing on the campaign, the investigation, the person whose life you just had a marked impact on – they focus on invasive adverts, oversaturation of UK news on local news titles and the story that didn’t interest them.
The power of telling people why what you do matters has never been more pronounced than in the reporting the Manchester Mill has done regarding Sacha Lord. Joshi Herrmann has leveraged the enormous amounts of goodwill his titles have generated to create this groundswell of support – something I’m not convinced others would have been able to do in the same position.
More broadly, those titles use every single newsletter send to remind readers why what they do is so important – and why they’re different to the other reporters and titles readers might have developed a mistrust for.
Doing this effectively, more than anything else they do, is what separates them from the rest of the market.
So if journalism is great at telling other people’s stories but less effective at telling its own, it follows that we can learn a lot from other industries.
With that thought firmly in mind, I took the basic framework of a communications plan for an announcement and looked at how that might be applied to the publication of a news story.
Agree timeline for announcement, agree key messages, target audience and spokespeople
It’s highly likely the timeline in question will be a short one. Hold onto the story for too long and you risk it changing – or a rival getting hold of it in the meantime.
Conversations around best publication times for certain themes and stories are nothing new. Make time for them to happen, and they happen. Often these decisions are instinctive – it’s a long-held view that long-reads. In-depth journalism or politics will be well-read on a Sunday morning, for example.
But the point about key messages is important. What trait in your newsroom, and your journalists, is the publication of the story extolling. Whether 300 or 3,000 words, the story is unlikely to capture the work and thought process that has gone into producing the story. When trust continues to be so hard to come by, showing readers behind the curtain is a powerful tool.
How you do this is limited only by demands on your time and imagination. You’ll see journalists do this with some regularity on X (Twitter), where the bulk of their audience usually isn’t. Can you transpose this thinking to Facebook groups, for example.
If it’s a piece of work the team is especially proud of, is it worth producing a video – which can travel much further than the story is likely to – that can be adapted for multiple platforms.
Earlier this year, I published a story about a local and much-loved bar being chased, unfairly, for a significant sum of money. It would’ve crippled them – the owner told me it was the end if he had to pay that. We got in touch with the firm doing the chasing, and they backed down. That might not happen without the journalism.
We wrote and published the story and those who read it thoroughly recognised the impact we’d have. The bar owner did too, visibly and demonstrably relieved with what had happened.
Did we tell the story of the impact we had well enough in merely writing a straightforward account of events? Did it even cross our minds?
The reality is that we could likely have generated greater impact for ourselves than we did.
Inform internal stakeholders
This broadly refers to if anyone’s day-to-day work is likely to be affected by said announcement – but the logic still applies.
Journalists are busy and there’s a danger that they end up working independently of each other – especially if they work away from an office. It’s 2024, most do.
The team, and anyone in the wider business where appropriate, knowing about the impending publication of a story achieves two things.
Firstly, it alerts everyone that this is a piece of work to be proud of, which is no bad thing. But secondly, it primes people to be ready to talk about the work that has been done on their external channels.
Inform external partners/key stakeholders
Ensuring those mentioned (positively, at least) in any article you’ve produced know about it and have been asked to help share it with their networks would be, you’d think, a no-brainer.
For lots of reporters it will be – for others, it’s low priority.
An extra 50 views from people in a Whatsapp group is paltry compared to what simply sharing on a Facebook page, in a newsletter or other large-scale channel can achieve.
But those 50 extra views give the article a chance to find its most engaged audience, and also the potential that a percentage of those 50 will share it on again.
If you were a start-up promoting your work, this would be a crucial step. It should remain so.
Equally, if you’ve written positively about a business, their core audience is likely to be more engaged with what they do than your own broader audience. They may also share how much they appreciate the writing you’ve done. This should be a key step in post-publication.
A bigger splash (website, press, socials, newsletters)
Different news platforms are designed in different ways. At Blog Preston, our homepage is presented in a feed that shows the latest stories. Whether automated or not, the volume of new content often sees stories disappear. Take steps to ensure the content that best displays your work ethic and values always has a place.
If the work you have done is particularly impactful, consider contacting trade press to highlight the work that you’ve done. Some have a high threshold for what they will publish – others less so. And if they use it – promote that article on your own official channels.
On social channels, think about graphics you can create (Canva is fine, and easy, if you’re not a designer) to tell the story repeatedly, and differently. Consider giving even more insight on a platform like LinkedIn.
If your newsletters have the option to add text, talk to your most engaged readers about why you think the work is important and impactful.
The most important thing is that journalists flip themselves out of feeling embarrassed to talk up their own work and its impact. There are plenty of people who won’t be shy about criticising what you do, so tell your own story loudly and regularly.
Alma 