Don't Just Produce News, Promote It!
If you've looked through other parts of the J-MEGS Toolkit, you know that "plan ahead" is one of our mantras. We've documented many ways that investing a little upfront planning time can produce big results; more productive editorial meetings, stronger stories, easier edits, more compelling interviews and more effective use of limited newsroom resources. Now we need to add promotion to that list.
Having listened to public radio stations all over the country, we have been struck by how little most do to promote their own work. This represents a significant lost opportunity for both audience building and station positioning. Here's how you can start doing a more effective job of news promotion right away and at virtually no cost! All it will take is a little bit of pre-planning.
The first rule of thumb is to set a policy to get promo audio for every story your news department devotes time and resources to produce. Promos can be as simple as a cut and copy for your local hosts or a fully produced, self-contained spot. Here are examples of six different kinds of promos you can do:
- Image/Positioning Promos
- Regularly Scheduled Segment Promos
- Story Promos
- News Series Promos
- Forward Promos
- Cross Platform Promos
Your reporters put a lot of time and effort into producing feature stories so why not promote their work? With effective promotion, listeners are made aware of your reporters and their stories even if they only hear the promo!
