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So what makes a good ‘news’ story?
Here are three key points to think about when deciding what story you want to blog about on your Tradespace.
Consider what will interest not just you but your blog readers: other tradespacers. And then – as this is about press releases – consider what might interest journalists and their readers. A story that’s fantastic for you may have no appeal outside your own office, so why would anyone want to read it in your blog, and why would a journalist write about it? As you come up with ideas, ask yourself:
•If this were about some other business, would I be interested?
•Why should anybody outside my business care?
Then consider whether your story has any news value. Journalists like news, not ‘olds’! So
•If you can, write about something that’s happening now, or is about to happen, not a story from a year or two ago
•If your best, most interesting news is a little out of date, find a way of freshening it up and making it topical. If something happened a year ago, the ‘news’ angle might be that you’re celebrating its anniversary. If you brought out an amazing new product three weeks ago, call its introduction a ’soft launch’ and make your news story an announcement of its ‘hard launch’ next week.
As you write your story, don’t beat around the bush or take ages to get to the point. Get your news into the first or second sentence and put your background information at the end, not the beginning. Journalists’ single biggest gripe about badly written stories is that the news is buried half down or has become completely lost.