1. Making the Media Your Friend

2. Elizabeth Ruebman, Amplify, Inc.
http://www.amplifyinc.org/
• Lobbied Congress on water
issues, including infrastructure.
• Communications for NY/NJ
Baykeeper. Partnered with
Hackensack Riverkeeper to work
on Combine Sewer Overflow
campaigns including a push for
an NJ notification act and a
campaign asking EPA to force NJ
into action.
• Tough to sell to media b/c not a
lot of people swimming in the
urban waters in our watershed.

3. A (Brief) Beginners’ Guide to Media Relations
The first step to getting reporters to care is operationalizing media
relations. Get ready!
• Designate media contact(s) within your organization and establish
protocol.
• Create (and maintain) your media lists
• Use your digital media.
• Learn the basics and respect the deadline.
• Create some basic messaging.

4. Working with Reporters
• Reporters are people, too! (Busy, stressed people.)
• Keep it real. You can be friendly without offering to wash someone’s
car.
• There may be an on-going dialogue before you get a story.
• Reporters have bosses (and readers), too, and this means that
sometime you will need to push back against yours if it’s not really a
good story or the info you are providing is too technical.

5. How to Pitch Your Story
• Make info simple and accessible. Don’t assume any knowledge.
• Visuals. Send a video or pic, create an infographic, stage an event,
give a tour.
• Be ready with good, specific info, without a lot of spin.
• Help with “homework.” Provide links, give a summary of a report,
make it easy. Never make a reporter dig.
• Use real language. For CSOs, we talked about “poop.” Don’t shy away
from grossness or humor, in fact, look for it.

6. How to Pitch, Continued
• Explain what it means in real terms and how it impacts human lives.
“If we don’t replace this sewer main, we will have sewage in the
elementary school.”
• Think about how stories are currently presented and package
accordingly. Top 5 lists are huge and human interest is always more
likely to get ink.
• In short, infrastructure—unless it involves a disaster—is a tough sell
to media but one that’s made much easier if you have a designated
person focused on making it accessible and interesting.
• THANKS FOR LISTENING!
elizabethr@amplify.org