CALS offers several alternatives for publicizing activities in the college. Depending on the audience and scope, you may want to use either the CALS press release form, CALS Weekly Bulletin, or Cooperative Extension's Tuesday Morning Notes. Each of these venues requires an individual entry.
Audience
Determine who your target audience is. Why do you think the media would like to cover your event and what makes it newsworthy? Ask yourself what you want the person reading the information to do. Buy a new publication? Attend a meeting? Take note of a new faculty member? Then put yourself in the reader's place and ask yourself what you would like to know about that subject. Who do you want the release to go to? The college? The campus? The general public? A certain segment of the general public?
Getting the Word Out
One option is to contact a media outlet directly to find out how they want you to send your release. Most newsrooms prefer releases pasted into the body of an email, rather than as an attached file. Some still prefer faxed releases. UA Communications regularly posts press releases and news tips to 150 major print and broadcast outlets across Arizona. Reporters base their coverage on news value, the amount of lead time they’ve been given, and the number of other assignments they have that day. Be sure to respect their deadlines. Send a press release or news tip to each appropriate print or broadcast outlet describing the event and how it would be of interest to their audience. Contact TV reporters only if your event is highly visual.
The Press Release
A press release usually announces one of the following: an upcoming event, a new faculty hire, a new program, or a new publication, video or product. Start by writing out a bulleted list of the things you want to say, then try putting it together using short paragraphs and clear language. Keep your target audience in mind. Every local newspaper contains press releases you can check for ideas.
CALS Press Release Form
Another option is to use the press release form that we have developed. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences press release form is designed to assist CALS faculty, staff and students publicize activities related to the college. Three forms are available; you can announce
- a CALS event that is open to the general public,
- a new product (a book, a video, etc.) or
- an award.
In addition to general information you can include quotes, audience, funding sources and logistics.Another of the benefits of the press release form is that you can specify what audiences and media markets you'd be interested in receiving the information. Go to: pressrelease and follow the directions to enter text in the boxes provided. For more information, contact press@cals.arizona.edu.
Your entry will be edited and may be sent to UA Communications, where it will be posted to http://uanews.org/, and other news outlets, such as CALS Newsline. You can also specify other news outlets for distribution, and submit digital photographs.
Please submit your release MORE THAN two weeks prior to a date you would like the information to appear in media outlets.
Note: Information from this press release template is for mass media outlets only.
NewsLine
NewsLine is an electronic newsletter that includes brief summaries on a variety of topics, with links to more information online.
View previous issues at: http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/newsline/previous-issues.html
Join this electronic newsletter by completing the form at cals.arizona.edu/pubs/newsline/
Inquiries about Newsline can be sent to newseditor@cals.arizona.edu.
CALS Weekly Bulletin
The CALS WEEKLY BULLETIN is the only avenue for communicating policy and procedure changes to the entire college. All faculty and staff are responsible for reading it each week. Material submitted should be brief and of wide interest. Deadline for submission: Thursday noon for the week's issue. For further information: Debby Janes, djanes@ag.arizona.edu or (520) 621-7198.
To submit to Weekly Bulletin: cals.arizona.edu/bulletin
To search Weekly Bulletin archive: cals.arizona.edu/pipermail/cals_bulletin
Cooperative Extension Tuesday Morning Notes (TMN)
Cooperative Extension Director Jim Christenson sends out this weekly email with events, project updates and awards to extension personnel every Tuesday.
To search previous issues of TMN: cals.arizona.edu/extension/tuesday/search.html Submissions:cals.arizona.edu/extension/tuesday/submittal_form.html
Document at http://cals.arizona.edu/ecat/pubs/publicity/
Maintained by Robert Casler, rcasler@ag.arizona.edu