I can’t tell you what the first piece of local press coverage I ever got was. There’s been a lot. We’d have to go back to the late ‘90s / early ‘00s, and back then I didn’t keep track of things like this.

I do remember the first piece of local coverage I got as a “personality”, and that was in the pages of the Glens Falls Post-Star. They were doing a roundup of advice for college students getting ready to leave and what they should pack, and there I was. A “college survival expert” giving advice on what to bring to college.

Actually, my “What To Bring To College” guide was one of the earliest things I did that went viral (in the legit, organic sense), but that’s a whole other story. The story this week is about the local press and how important they are in determining your success as you continue on the path toward becoming (Internet) famous.

Why The (Local) Media Matters

At this point, you may have picked up some perceived hostility on my part towards the larger national media. Truthfully, there’s no hostility or malice there. I’ve worked on the inside for a lot of those companies in different capacities (MSNBC and CBS for example), and having done so, I just know how they work.

They like their stories to fit into specific boxes (re: narratives), certain people get coverage because they’re in the Big Club, and for the most part, they don’t really care about who you are and what you’re pitching. Especially if what you’re pitching doesn’t fit into that particular reporter’s worldview.

Not that they’re supposed to care, but that’s important for you to know, especially if the reporter’s worldview is kind of dumb. See: Pretty much all of them obsessed with social media.

But the local media is different. As long as there’s something relevant in your pitch to their local community? Your probability of success in terms of getting something places goes up considerably.

No. I can’t guarantee you that you WILL get placement in local media outlets. Remember: Anyone who guarantees you anything when it comes to marketing and PR is a filthy liar. What I can say is that your odds of getting placement are far, far greater when approaching local media outlets than what they would be if you pitched larger national outlets. ESPECIALLY if you have a compelling, local, and relevant pitch to make.

And if we’re being honest, the placement you get in the local outlets can often be more valuable than the placement you get in the larger national outlets.

What do I mean?

Of course you want The New York Times to cover you. Of course. It’s one of the largest national media outlets. A lot of the other media outlets tend to piggyback on what The New York Times says and does. The coverage immediately validates you in the eyes of the consumers and possible business partners. And if you play your cards right (don’t worry, I’ll tell you how to do that when we get there), the coverage in The New York Times is an excellent springboard for other media coverage, which in turn should considerably up the probability of your campaign/business’s success. Despite all of the bad things I’ve said about The New York Times so far, and I stand by all of it, this is true. Of course you want that coverage and of course it’s going to be valuable for you to get it.

But.

Look at where we are right now. We’ve talked a lot about testing and shaping your product, but not much about the first one hundred customers. Or not much about the actual, honest to God validation that the thing you’re pitching will survive first contact with even your first customer, let alone the subsequent 99.

So we’re not up to The New York Times just yet. Right now we need to watch for a whole bunch of stuff, and then make changes (if needed) based on what happens next. In a lot of respects, the first bit of coverage that you get will help determine the future of the thing you’re pitching, if it has any future at all. (We don’t know! We have to find out!)

Making contact with the local press, and getting coverage, is an excellent (as well as affordable!) way for you to validate the thing you’re working on, see how people react, and make adjustments if needed. It will also help to generate the first few customers, if not the critical first one hundred, and from there with coverage, it will help you get even more coverage. That’s why this is so important, but often sadly overlooked.

Most people want it all as fast as they can possibly get it. And sure, it’s awesome if you’re successful right from the jump, but that’s also incredibly rare and usually reserved for the lucky or for those in the Big Club.

You and I? We ain’t lucky, and we’re definitely not members of the Big Club, so we have to take the slow, methodical, and more practical route to get to where we’re going.

I know. That’s not sexy or cool, but that’s how it is.

Where Should You Start?

Where did you grow up? Where did you go to college?

(If you didn’t go to college, that’s OK too. I think way too many people these days go who don’t really need to go because our job market decided a long time ago that you had to have a Bachelor’s degree in order to enter it. This is really stupid. Especially now where most people have a Bachelor’s degree and STILL can’t get a job, in part, because the value of a Bachelor’s degree has diminished because of the number of people who have one. That’s a rant for another place and another time. Bottom line here? If you didn’t go to college, don’t worry. For our purposes, it doesn’t matter.)

IF you went to college, the easiest place to start in getting yourself local coverage is to target the media outlets located where you went to school.

As long as it wasn’t NYC, you should be able to make the pitch of “Local Student Does Awesome News Worthy Thing” and get some traction. If you’re in NYC (or London, or Los Angeles), this doesn’t usually work. I’m not saying it doesn’t work. I’m just saying the probability of success is really low. That’s because the nation (or country’s) largest media outlets generally act as if they’re national outlets, and so unless what you’re pitching has national appeal, and we ain’t there yet, they generally won’t care. There are exceptions. You should still pitch them. Just know the odds are lower of successful placement.

If you didn’t go to college, then you target the outlets based in your home town.

For example, I grew up in Monroe, New York. So let’s say I was going to pitch my comic book, Liberty, to my hometown outlets. How do I start? Well, you start by making a spreadsheet. On there should be the name of the media outlet and the name of the reporter who covers stuff that your pitch is relevant too (never send a pitch to a general email address and never send a pitch to someone who does not cover an area that’s not related to what you’re pitching). Next to the reporter’s name should be their email address and telephone number.

Don’t bother with their Twitter handle. We’ll talk about Twitter a lot more later on, but with the local media it doesn’t matter much.

Then you make your pitch. You wait seven days, and then you follow-up. If you don’t hear anything after your follow-up, don’t bother the reporter again with this particular pitch. In fact, for the purposes of what we’re talking about right here, just move on to the next outlet. You only follow-up once.

Fill out your spreadsheet with reporters in your area, and go down the list with your pitch. WHAT is in your pitch? We’ll you’ll have to tune in next week for that.

(Image Credit: Bob Schieffer via Wikimedia Commons)