What Is Newsworthiness and How Do I Get It?

Any business looking to use digital PR to help increase their backlink profile and domain authority requires creating newsworthy and relevant PR campaigns that aim to target their audience. PRs will use media outlets with authoritative voices that can speak directly to a business’s target market to build a company’s credibility in the press and drive high DR links back to their website. 

Creating newsworthy linkable assets is essential for PR success as journalists rely on PRs to provide interesting data-led stories and expert commentary for their articles online. Making your pitch stand out from the crowd involves creating a newsworthy and eye-catching press release that is easy to read and to the point, as journalists want to be able to easily lift their copy for the story that they need to write.

But What Does Newsworthy Mean?

Newsworthy is a word used to describe something as being topical to breaking news or ongoing trends and events that are taking place.

When it comes to digital PR content creation, newsworthy elements must be implemented in a press release or newsjacking comment to compete with the hundreds of emails journalists will receive from other sources. Creating newsworthy content is vital to delivering great campaign results as the research and creative phase involves considering what your client has the authority to discuss and how that data or commentary can help that journalist you are planning to target for media coverage. Sometimes it can be difficult to write content that reflects a business’ message, tone and purpose and is newsworthy. 

Embryo has listed five top tips below that every PR should follow to create newsworthy content and secure media coverage:

Be Proactive and Act Quickly

One part of the news that will never change is how rapidly stories change throughout the day. Journalists are always under pressure to turn around new stories that are engaging and relevant in an incredibly short amount of time.

This is due to the demand for content and the consistent need to be there first to beat competitors. That’s why, when you are ready to create a press release, it must be timely to be newsworthy. Sitting around on an idea or taking too long to have reactive PR campaigns signed off will put you on the back foot. Being proactive and working quickly is key for you to successfully secure media coverage.

Provide Something Fresh and Exciting

It should come as no surprise that a newsworthy piece of writing must include something that is new! Journalists are bombarded every day with information that claims to be exciting and fresh. Still, in reality, a lot of it is simply boring, irrelevant and recycled information that they already know. 

To create a piece of newsworthy writing, you have to go above and beyond by sourcing unique material that considers your reporter’s readership. A PR should provide a story that gives a fresh perspective on a trending topic or provide information that is relevant to the reader , as journalists depend on credible resources to help their stories rank and be seen by the general public online.

Pick the Main Stats

It might seem obvious, but sometimes we can get wrapped up in the smaller details when we sit down to complete the content. Newsworthiness is all about having the biggest and best elements to a story. So, pick the most standout stats and highlight them in bold as this will allow the reporter to acknowledge why these findings are relatable to their audience. 

Add a Human Touch to Your PR Campaign

By putting people at the centre of your digital PR writing, you will immediately boost the chances of your content being used and the business being linked back to by the media outlets. This can be done by finding case studies provided by a client. Implementing real life stories into your PR strategy will help you boost coverage opportunities and also help journalists with story generation as they need stories that give different experiences and perspectives from different life scenarios. 

Think about the location of your publication

Some journalists rely on stats and comments from businesses based in different locations. Therefore it’s important to ensure that you double-check where your reporter is located, as they’ll need figures specifically for that city or region. One error could potentially damage a relationship, as journalists dislike why PRs do not read their bios or articles. Doing your research and providing relevant content to that report will help build a good relationship with that writer as they’re more likely to use your content for their story.