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Great news demands a creative flair. As journalists and public relations professionals, we don't just sit around and wait for news to find us–we make it happen. It's our duty to get all the facts and information needed to write a well-rounded story, but without direction, it can be a jumbled mess. When you start working for a public relations firm or a news organization, pitching ideas for a client or an article will be a big part of your job. Learning how to create good news to share with your audience will be a good skill to have no matter what sector of journalism you're in. So the question is, how do you create news? Here are a few ways:
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Participate in A Cause or Charity
A very common way to create news is to tie in with a charity or cause. Not only is this good publicity for your organization, but this pulls on the heartstrings of people. Whether you're large or small, helping with a charity or cause will create positive talk about your company. Writing a press release, getting the word out, pitching it to people who you believe will want to cover it will turn the plain old act of charity become a grand gesture of a selfless organization helping a community in need.
Hold an Election
If you work for a public relations firm, holding an election for your clients is a great way to create news. For example, if your client is Coca Cola and Autumn is coming up, then you could come up with three fall-inspired flavors and hold a social media vote on which one will be in stores. This gets Coca Cola's name in the minds of consumers and would easily be covered by media outlets considering how well-known the brand is. The aspect of letting the consumers have a say in what the next flavor is not very common, therefore; you're creating news. Remember, your idea must be newsworthy to create news.
Make an Award
Something that can benefit both large and small companies is creating an award. A popular form of award is a scholarship. Impacting the lives of people by giving money to help further their goals and dreams is as close to newsworthy as you can get. As you go through the process of promoting the scholarship and choosing a recipient, you can further create news by talking to the recipient about what they plan to do with the scholarship and how it'll impact their life. Even five years later, circling back around to that person and creating a testimonial on what they've done with their life and the impact the money made is amazing, newsworthy content that could be created.
Become Part of a Trend
News doesn't always have to be serious and create such a rippling effect like a scholarship being a person's only chance to attend college. It can be a fun, lighthearted way to get people interested in your company or client. Staying up to date on the latest trends can give you an advantage to interact with a younger audience that you may not have reached otherwise. Participating in trends, such as the popular app TikTok, could potentially be an effective and inexpensive way to engage with your audience. If you're lucky enough, you could even go viral.
The moral of the story is that creating news doesn't have to be fake, like we're constantly hearing today. News can come in many different forms and one idea can turn into an amazing story. Without these ideas and ways of turning something that happened into a story people are excited to read, then we'd never learn about the amazing things going on in the world. Next time you read a news story, stop and think about why this story is being told. In almost every case, someone made it happen.
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