Before Giving up Hope, Recast Your Story

Variety is the spice of life, and yet how many companies, organizations and individuals forget that important pearl of wisdom when it comes to media relations and public relations.

It's tempting to think that if you schedule a press conference or send out a press release and nobody covers your story, that you have to forget it and move on. In reality, there may be numerous reasons you got little or no coverage and few could have to do with the actual story. 

Before giving up hope, consider recasting your story with a slightly different angle or hook and try again in a few weeks.

---

It's possible the story may catch the interest of a few more reporters, editors or bloggers than it did the first time. It's also possible there would be fewer competing stories, giving yours a better chance of rising to the top.

What do we mean by recast? If there are two elements in the story, but you chose to headline only one of them, make the headline about the other element the next time. If you were pushing quarterly sales last time, consider emphasing a new industry trend the next.

Obviously, you can't re-announce an appointment or time-specific piece of news a second time. But given enough thought, you might be able to retool your announcement in such a way that you generate the coverage you thought was lost. For more, see our previous post, Improving Your Chances of News Coverage.