by Val

With major newspapers laying off scores of employees, offering early retirement and reconfiguring staffs, getting coverage in these respected sources of information is harder than ever.

I have a museum client who recently opened a new education center in a suburban county of a major market. When this museum first opened, it garnered massive amounts of ink. But the opening of its 8,000-square-foot, kid-focused education center nearly passed without comment from the area’s major newspaper. And we tried everything – inviting journalists who have written about the museum in the past to a private preview event, pitching the new wing twice and sending press release after press release about the event and the new building.

The problem? The newspaper had a shake-up recently, and the contacts we normally talk to had either left, their section was defunct or they did not have a clear picture about what their new duties were.

While the lack of coverage in this newspaper caused a lot of concern around the office – the museum was hosting a FREE family fun day to celebrate the opening, and we needed to attract a respectable crowd – we hadn’t solely relied on press from this one newspaper and we got the message about the family fun day out in other ways, including:

• Pitched and sent press releases to smaller newspapers and magazines in our county – who gave the museum great coverage
• E-mailed teachers in the county about the event
• Put up posters
• Sent flyers to people on the museum’s mailing list
• Heavily promoted the event on the museum’s Web site
• Advertised in our county newspaper

Fortunately, the event was successful, with more than 650 people attending, thanks to fantastic coverage by smaller newspapers and magazines and a marketing plan that didn’t rely solely on PR to get our message out.

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Categories: PR, event planning, val