Internet
Selwyn Manning, Co-editor, scoop.co.nz
Selwyn Manning has been a journalist for over 13 years mainly in the field of investigative reporting. He has worked in traditional print media, from The Listener and Metro through to the suburban newspaper Manukau Courier.
He co-founded Scoop in 1999 with the global reach of the internet a major draw card for him. Scoop bypasses the traditional media filter, allowing you to publish your press releases unedited to an audience of between one and two million page views per month.
Selwyn's Top Tips
#1: Include bloggers in your media list
#2: Write ‘how’ and ‘why’ pieces to follow up your release
#3: When pitching a story, pay attention to relevance
#4: Illustrate longer pieces and give them structure
#5: The best read features are topical
#6: Don’t use the internet as a vehicle for sniping
#7: Practise the art of headline writing
#8: Use video and audio as well as text
#9: The internet provides a global platform for your message
#10: The internet puts you directly in touch with your audience
Transcript
Scoop is not just an entity where you can publish your press release, through, it’s a media organisation in its own right. The decision was made to basically open up the gates to what only the journalists used to see. When the statement comes in, we’re looking at it, and we’re getting shaped in our own thinking as well; and you quite often will probably see us talking about issues out there on radio, sometimes on television.
Blog writers are an important part of this whole media environment today. Their views are often persuasive and influential, particularly among politicians, and so by taking the traditional route of releasing a media statement just to mainstream media won’t often get to them at all, and doing it through Scoop – they’re going through Scoop all the time.
#1:INCLUDE BLOGGERS IN YOUR MEDIA LIST
The information on announcing something that’s going to happen is important, but also its really important just to follow through with information that really answers the ‘why’ questions, answers the ‘how’ questions - items that make sense of all the information that’s out there – and that’s highly valuable to people, particularly if it gives a steer on not just what has happened in the past and what is happening now, but it gives an indication of where this issue is going.
#2: WRITE 'HOW' AND 'WHY' PIECES TO FOLLOW UP YOUR RELEASE
Pitching the idea’s really important, but there’ll be times where we would like to see some evidence of the issue. It may be by way of an abstract or a synopsis of what the article would be about. What are the complexities that are lying behind it, what are the opposing ideas, where’s the thinking of those who do not subscribe to this point of view, why is it necessary for this information to be out now.
#3: WHEN PITCHING A STORY PAY ATTENTION TO RELEVANCE AND OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS
Structure is important. For example if you wrote ten thousand words without structure, well people probably wouldn’t get past, you know, the first ten percent of it. The other thing with longer pieces too, it’s often very important to illustrate them, and so really what you’re seeing is organisations are starting to have to think in a way like journalists.
#4: ILLUSTRATE LONGER PIECES AND GIVE THEM STRUCTURE
Pieces that give a background to what is happening, an insight into some of the subtleties - investigative pieces, analysis pieces that are well-written, well-timed - they rate very well and they will also continue to be a body of work that people will cite in the future.
Because the database is open and it doesn’t have a time-limit to that, we find that we often see references to items that are in the Scoop database from years ago.
#5: THE BEST READ FEATURES ARE TOPICAL BUT WILL ALSO STAND THE TEST OF TIME
One of the things that we don’t like is just petty kind of jabbing at people or organisations. Chase the ball, you don’t chase the player. Pieces that are insightful, that lift the lid, that humanise, that fit with our core editorial policies like humanitarianism, they’ll work really well.
#6: DON’T USE THE INTERNET AS A VEHICLE FOR SNIPING
Headlines are important to capture exactly what it’s about. Some people find headline writing really quite difficult, but we’re all used to telling our friends and our families exactly what’s happened in fairly short and concise ways. Ok, I’m going to ring up and I’m going to tell my brother, my sister, my partner on what this is about, and then your headline can usually come into that.
If you looked at your first two paragraphs in the article that you’ve written, you’ll find the key words in there will probably indicate what the headline should be.
#7: PRACTISE THE ART OF HEADLINE WRITING
Written text is a very, very good way of getting information out, but there are some things where audio and certainly video are the best vehicle of getting information out there.
It may be that you’ve got an interview, or a one-on-one with a very special person that perhaps text just can’t quite capture. Three minutes on... with a YouTube video may actually be able to get that out to many, many, many thousands of people.
The text can also be written around what is in that video – for example, position the video in the page, you know, in that top third so that people are seeing it.
#8: USE VIDEO AND AUDIO AS WELL AS TEXT
We all live within a global village, but there may be, for example, a disaster that has occurred in our region, perhaps. Some of the issues relating to the impact on the people – there’s ways of bringing that out and communicating that effectively, knowing that you’re not just talking to New Zealanders here.
#9: THE INTERNET PROVIDES A GLOBAL PLATFORM FOR YOUR MESSAGE
Put it this way, instead of your message being placed into the hands of another who may, or may not really grasp what your message really is about, you can control it more by doing it this way through us.
Obviously in some cases it will be challenged by other players, but it is a way of getting your material out there how you see it, and also in a way that will not be touched by others.
#10: THE INTERNET PUTS YOU DIRECTLY IN TOUCH WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
If one believes that an issue is being trivialised, or it hasn’t been communicated to the public in a robust way, then there’s an opportunity to use a vehicle like Scoop to make sure that your view on how it should be is actually out there.
