Flickr Image: DVS Photographer
I’ve been on vacation in North Dakota for the past week. “Why would you go there?” you ask. Well, I grew up there, and sometimes it’s good to get away from D.C. for a while. But now on to my story – after a hockey game last Friday night, my husband and I witnessed a fight and a frightening fall by one of the participants.
The self-professed news junkie in me took over, and the next morning, I turned on the news, and picked up the local paper, the Grand Forks Herald. There wasn’t any news about the fight or how the injured man was doing. I wasn’t completely surprised, because it happened fairly late. I confess to being used to immediate news on Twitter, and other social media, but, even I didn’t tweet the incident.
On Sunday, I still didn’t have any news. One friend was able to provide me with a little information. Then, Monday morning, I awoke to the news all over the radio, TV, and all the major daily papers in the state of North Dakota. Suddenly, I had the story in more outlets than I needed. I spoke with Archie Ingersoll, a Grand Forks Herald reporter, who said it was a busy weekend for the police, so they did not receive a release about any of the fights that night. He went on to say that reporters were not aware of the incident until Sunday morning, when a tip came in to their copy desk. Once they had the tip, they followed-up on the story.
My takeaways from this event:
- Reporters do still rely on public information officers to issue press releases.
- Some news outlets wait to get the story right before they file the story.
- Broadcast outlets tend to follow the print outlets, so pick your sources wisely.
How can PR people help reporters get the right story? What can we, as citizens, do to help reporters? Please share your thoughts with the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.
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