Some brands reach a point when their media relations expectations are more demanding. The brands value national news coverage and their marketing forecasts no longer place a priority on their region’s local media. The organizations decline to make themselves as readily available to local media that they now characterize as small potatoes. However, here are our top 10 reasons brands better not blow off interview requests from local media:
- Today’s local TV news producers are often your best contacts on the national level after they jump a couple of new jobs a few years down the road.
- Ignoring the local news is like presidential candidates ignoring their core constituencies, the people who brought you to power and will support you when times are tougher.
- You would rather stumble on the local news and improve before appearing before the entire country.
- Local news appearances allow you to build a library of media experience, which national news producers might check out before sitting you before a camera.
- If you can survive some of the wacky technical problems the local news presents, you can handle just about any on-air issue.
- You never know what big shots are visiting town, seeing you on the local news and considering how your services might help.
- The national news is often nothing more than identifying good local stories and retelling them with higher production value.
- The local news still offers one of the quickest ways to reach thousands, if not tens of thousands of people.
- It’s not uncommon for people who can’t get on the news to pay for one of those on-air segments that look like the news. So don’t pass up an invitation to take part in the real thing and earn some instant credibility.
- The reason parodies of local news, such as the one in “Horrible Bosses 2,” are so funny is because they are so spot on. So seize the day and continue to enjoy a behind-the-scenes experience even if you consider it sensational and superficial.