How To Get a Story Booked on Local TV News
How do you get a story on the local news?
Follow these top 7 tips and learn how to pitch local TV stations.
7 tips to getting your story on local TV:
- Visualize the story. Pitching Westchester broadcast media is very different then pitching Westchester print media. If you want to make your story stand out, think about how you can visually bring the story to life for television. What visuals do you have that will make the story pop? Go out of your way to make your story aesthetically appealing to a producer. You can even add some props, such as a stunning table display if you think it will add to the story.
- Tie it In. Give the local TV news producer a compelling reason to run the story now. There should be a strong tie in to a calendar event to give a compelling reason why the story should run. For example, is there a specific time of year you do an annual family tradition that is happening this weekend?
- Larger Trend. How does your story tie into the larger trend in the community? For example, this weekend RMG pitched and secured a story on The Cooking Realtors Tomato Sauce. It was the featured package on News 12 Westchester on Saturday at 5 pm. The larger trend was that this was a behind-the-scenes peek into one Westchester resident’s annual tradition that hundreds of Westchester residents actually do all weekend. By mentioning the fact that hundreds of county residents also do this, the appeal of the segment suddenly became a lot larger.
- Walk the Producers through the process. After you’ve secured a segment, walk the producers through it. For example, we stirred the tomatoes and let the producer taste the sauce. We also had b-roll opportunities available to show the entire process from beginning to end to visually walk the viewer through it.
- Provide Sources. Producers like when you have additional sources available. If you are hosting an event, have other attendees or sources available to talk to the press. Are there other Westchester residents attending the event that can provide commentary on the annual tradition in their own family? If so, have them available for commentary for the media to provide an outside perspective.
- Don’t forget the 5 W’s. This goes without saying, but if you want Westchester media to show up, be sure to provide them all of the relevant details in one condensed email: who, what, where, when and why. Also, provide correct spellings up front for all town names, resident IDs and interview names. The address of the location shoot and a phone number of a point of contact are also critical.
Graphics. Be sure to capture tons of graphics before, during and after the event. Many of these graphics can be used to promote the segment on social media (a must!) and to include in a post-event release for extended coverage. If you want to re-pitch the same segment when the event takes place next year, and to do a post event release for extended coverage. Get creative with your graphics by combining screenshots of the press coverage with photos of the displays you created. We recommend using some of our favorite apps to create these pieces: PIP Camera, Photo Mirror, FotoFus, InstaMag.
Looking to share your story on Westchester, NY local TV news?
Contact our Westchester County PR firm today!
KRIS RUBY is the CEO of Ruby Media Group, an award-winning public relations and media relations agency in Westchester County, New York. Kris Ruby has more than 15 years of experience in the Media industry. She is a sought-after media relations strategist, content creator and public relations consultant. Kris Ruby is also a national television commentator and political pundit and she has appeared on national TV programs over 200 times covering big tech bias, politics and social media. She is a trusted media source and frequent on-air commentator on social media, tech trends and crisis communications and frequently speaks on FOX News and other TV networks. She has been featured as a published author in OBSERVER, ADWEEK, and countless other industry publications. Her research on brand activism and cancel culture is widely distributed and referenced. She graduated from Boston University’s College of Communication with a major in public relations and is a founding member of The Young Entrepreneurs Council. She is also the host of The Kris Ruby Podcast Show, a show focusing on the politics of big tech and the social media industry. Kris is focused on PR for SEO and leveraging content marketing strategies to help clients get the most out of their media coverage.