Public Relations Book Project.pdf

Fort Worth Report Public
Relations Campaign
05.01.2022
─
Carmen Ochoa,Crystal Hernandez,Collier Ricks,Linda Puga
Texas Wesleyan University
Public Relations Campaign Project

1
Overview
This service-learning project will take the place of a final exam with a
completed campaign book and presentation due on the day of your
scheduled presentation. You will design a complete public relations
campaign using a modified version of the RACE (ROPE) public relations
strategy found in your textbook. Research should include actual data.
Each student team will present a campaign to the client. Student teams
will have 30 minutes for the presentation, which will include a
PowerPoint® presentation.
Teams must produce at least two books and have them available at the
presentation—one book is to be turned in for a grade; the other book is
to be presented to the client. Clients must attend the group’s
presentation. This is a group assignment. Your group may revise the
book and submit a revision by the date below.

2
Table of Contents
1. Mission Statement
2. Opportunity Statement
3. Goalsand Objectives
4. Situation Analysis
5. Research
6. Audience and Public Analysis
7. Strategy
8. Budget
9. Recommendations
10. Appendix

3
Mission Statement
"We pledge to produce high-quality objective local journalism that
informs public decision-making, addresses the quality of life of our
community’s citizens, holds our policymakers accountable and tells
our readers’ stories by listening to them and making sure they are
valued and understood. In all that we do, earning the trust and
respect of our audience is paramount. Our reporting will be free to all
who access our primary digital channels." - Fort Worth Report Mission
Statement

4
Opportunity Statement
After launching the non-profit organization in the Fort Worth community on April 12th,
2021, the Fort Worth Report has come upon an opportunity for growth. The organization
needs more awareness and an increase in action from all three of its key public audiences:
donors, newsletter subscribers and website traffic.
While in operation, the Fort Worth Report has focused on producing high-quality objective
local journalism that informs public decision-making, addresses the quality of life of our
community’s citizens, holds our policymakers accountable and tells readers stories by
listening to them and making sure they are valued and understood. Since its existence, the
organization has published hundreds of pieces of original journalism, continued to receive
support from the community, and continued to improve its internal, daily functions.
Most recently, the Fort Worth Report has been able to relocate near Texas Wesleyan
University, furthering the need for additional funding from donors to cover more local
events. The current challenge that the Fort Worth Report faces is increasing its donors,
newsletter subscribers and website traffic.
The Fort Worth Report wants to remain successful and expand its outreach in the
community, to do so, it needs strong public relations activities to raise awareness in local
journalism and increase its growth by creating content that brings awareness to readers
and positively maintains their attention.

5
Goals
1. To make the Fort Worth Report known on campus
○ Theme: Fort Worth Report x TXWES Collaboration
○ Key Message: Free. Fair. Local.
Objectives
Impact Objectives
○ To increase overall awareness of the Fort Worth Report on
campus by 30-50% in 6 months.
○ To create awareness about The Fort Worth Report’s value in
terms of newsletter subscribers and convenience by 50% in
six months.
○ To increase donors, website traffic and social media in Fort
Worth Report by 50% in 6 months.

6
Output Objectives
○ To distribute 500 flyers to students and faculty at Texas
Wesleyan University during the beginning of the semester.
○ To post 1 flier in every classroom and building on campus.
○ To host a campus-wide event by Fall 2022.
○ To send out press releases about the campus wide event
beginning of the semester
○ To send out pitch letters to organizations on campus to
request event sponsorship.
○ To create an effective social media strategy with 30 posts by
Fall 2022.
○ Increase the awareness of the target audience range
between 18-25 by 30%-50% within the next 6 months.
○ Increase social media posts by two every four weeks. This
being advertisements, teasers, news stories, updates, etc.
○ Increase the awareness of the target audience between the
ages 30-45 by 20% within a 7 month period.

7
Situation Analysis
Competition
● Axios.com
● TexasTribune.org
● DallasFreePress.com
SWOT—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for Fort
Worth Report
● Strengths
○ Strong ethics
○ Transparency
○ Word of mouth
● Weaknesses
○ Presence
○ Audience reach
○ Budget
● Opportunities
○ Expanding location
○ Attending events
○ Summer Fellowship
○ Expanding social media
● Threats
○ Bigger news organizations
○ Other smaller nonprofit news organizations
○ Short attention span of readers

8
Situation Analysis
Threats to Campaign
● Budget
● Time Constraints
Target Audience
● Potential Newsletter Subscribers (Demographics 18-45 and 55+)
○ Students in residence on Campus (18-25)
○ Commuter students on Campus (18-25)
○ Faculty on Campus (30-45) (55+)
○ Staff (30-45) (55+)
■ Our conducted survey among all demographics
determined that Instagram was the most used social
media platform, with 53.3%. Additionally, 100% of our
respondents said that they get their news online as
opposed to print, ads, or word of mouth.
● Potential Donors
○ Students, Commuter, Faculty Staff
○ Polytechnic Community Members and Alumni of Texas
Wesleyan have money to spend to possibly donate and read
the Fort Worth Report donate
● Local Community (Fort Worth)
○ Polytechnic Community Members
○ Alumni of Texas Wesleyan
Target Publics
The target public refers to groups that one communicates with on an
ongoing basis.
· Chief Development Officer
· Marketing Administrative Assistant

9
Industry Profile
Fort Worth Report provides free local journalism to the community. In
an industry where it has become normalized to pay for news.
Problems
● Lack of awareness throughout the city of Fort Worth
● Little financial support since they are a non-profit organization
Predicted Trends
● Increase in financial support during this campaign and
increased support remaining after campaign completion
● Increase in newsletter subscribers during this campaign and
increased newsletter subscriber base remaining after campaign
completion
● Increase in website traffic during this campaign and sustained
increases after campaign completion

10
Research
Primary Research
● The survey was chosen because the Fort Worth Report suggested
we get feedback and information from people on local and
general news since we couldn’t use the newsletter subscribers.
The Fort Worth Report suggested this demographic to us since
they wanted to get some of the same people who listen to or read
NPR and KERA. They also wanted us to ask people on campus
since that is their main target demographic.
● Its purpose was to get information about people on their thoughts
on the Fort Worth Report and if people know about the Fort
Worth Report. What feedback can we get from their target
audience? Do they like free news? do they like fair journalism?
● QR CODE Survey
● The information we were seeking is do people know about the
Fort Worth Report? How can we make people aware of the Fort
Worth Report on campus?

11
Research
Primary Research
Survey
● After our initial survey, we realized our questions lacked depth to
understand our audience.
● Questions to include in the future survey
○ Gender?
■ Male or Female?
■ Other?
○ Student, Faculty or Staff?
■ What is your major?
■ What is your role on campus?
○ Race and/or Ethnicity?
■ What is your race?
■ What is your ethnicity?
○ Location?
■ Where are you from?
● City, State, Zip
● Country (International Students)
○ News?
■ Do you prefer local news? National news? International
news?
■ What major news networks do you obtain your
information from?
■ What news categories do you prefer to monitor?
● Ex. Business, Sports, Education, Environment,
etc..
● We also realized our audience gets most of their news online and
that could include social media. Which led us to create our social
media strategy tactic.

12
Research
Secondary Research
● Case Study
○ We chose to look at this case study to understand how to
build community relations. This helps us figure out how to
create the collaboration between TXWES and the Fort Worth
Report .
○ Silver Anvil Awards #LocallyLexington 2021
● Other Non-Profit
○ We chose to monitor a non-profit organization because we
wanted to understand the Fort Worth Reports goals and
objectives within the next couple of years. The Fort Worth
Report mentioned the San Antonio Report as the model
organization they aspire to become in the future.
■ SanAntonioReport.org
● Competition
○ We asked what other news organizations they have
competition with within the Fort Worth area besides other
Market 5 networks. We didn't want to assume the
Star-Telegram as the only other news organization as their
competition. We analyzed these other news organizations to
understand how the Fort Worth Report has the opportunity
to grow and separate themselves from their competitors.
■ Axios.com
■ TexasTribune.org
■ DallasFreePress.com
● Other Resources
○ Poynter

13
■ We wanted to get more information about non-profit
news organizationsand started to look at how they
function and how they help the community.
○ Pew Research Center
■ Once we did our survey we realized we needed more
information to corroborate what our research showed.
■ Audience research helped us get concrete graphs and
data to help support where we lacked in our initial
survey.

14
Audience and Public Analysis
"A majority of Americans say they use YouTube and Facebook, while use of
Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok is especially common among adults under
30." -Pew Research Institute 2021
"There are notable differences between age groups when measuring the
frequency of internet use. Some 48% of those ages 18 to 29 said they were
online “almost constantly,” compared with 22% of those 50 to 64 and 8% of
those 65 and older." -Pew Research Institute
Our conducted survey among all demographics determined that
Instagram was the most used social media platform, with 53.3%.
Additionally, 100% of our respondents said that they get their news
online as opposed to print, ads, or word of mouth.
Demographics
● The reason we target these demographics is that the information
that the Fort Worth Report provided during their initial visit on
campus mentioned people who read the Fort Worth Report were
young readers in their late 20s and early 30s.
● However, after our second and final visit to the Fort Worth Report.
We received demographic information from Jamese Branch and it
showed us different information than we had. They mainly had
more readers in the 55+ demographic, which makes sense as they
want people who have money to donate and are more likely to
read local news.
● Potential Newsletter Subscribers (Demographics 18-45 and 55+)
○ Students in residence on Campus (18-25)
○ Commuter students on Campus (18-25)
○ Faculty on Campus (30-45) (55+)

15
○ Staff (30-45) (55+)
Psychographics
● Potential Donors
○ Students, Commuter, Faculty, Staff
, Alumni, Polytechnic
Community Member
■ Students have strong attitudes about where they get
their information from such as online rather than print.
■ The lifestyle of students is mainly learning on campus
and focusing on studies. As students, we don't have a
lot of money to spend ideally unless needed.
■ However, there are faculty and staff on campus that do
have a yearning for knowledge and could donate and
recommend students to read the Fort Worth Report.
○ Polytechnic Community Members and Alumni of Texas
Wesleyan have money to spend to possibly donate and read
the Fort Worth Report. They are more active in the
community and are loyal to one another.
Market Segmentation
● Once we understood the demographics and psychographics we
achieved from our survey and the information provided by the
Fort Worth Report. It led us to identify how we wanted to form our
strategies. In our initial survey, we learned that people get their
news online. We also learned they were active on social media,
more specifically Instagram.
● We wanted to make sure people on campus knew via social media
about the Fort Worth Report. It also gave us an approach to
students who possibly couldn’t partake in the social media
strategy approach by having the ads along campus and the
in-person event.

16
Strategy
● Overall
○ Our strategies will overall consist of an event day or week
that will be implemented on campus in-person to inform
students about the Fort Worth Report. While our social
media tactics can help us tackle the Fort Worth Report’s
online presence, an in-person event day/week will allow us
to fully engage with the people that resonate with the
purpose and work of our client
● Channel:
○ Time needed
■ A semester’s worth planning out the logistics ahead of
time and coordinating with Texas Wesleyan to make
sure no other events are conflicting with the event
week.
● Personnel needed
○ 2 people at most (Chief Development Officer, Development
Administrative Assistant)
● Money needed
○ Anything free and possible room for budget (Max $500)

17
Strategy
Social Media Strategy
● Goals: Increase in followers on all platforms.
○ Content consistency and more awareness
○ Increase in subscribers, partnerships, donations, content
production on all platforms including Instagram. (Possible
video from reporters can be useful to story updates as well
as timeline posts.)
○ Utilize Instagram reels to get their messages across.
○ Content consistency on all platforms
○ Get active in Facebook groups to grab more specific
audiences such as our demographics mentioned above.
○ Put social media in a position to be exposed to mass
audiences using partnerships.
○ Include all social media handles on all platforms to balance
out follower numbers.
● Possibly expand to YouTube and Google ads.
○ Key message: Free. Fair. Local.
○ It will run via YouTube and Google ads
● Send out emails and keep the website up to date.
○ TXWES x Fort Worth Report Collaboration
■ Key Message: Free. Fair. Local. within email
● Potentially opening up an internship fellow position for the
management, curation, and regulation of the Fort Worth Report’s
social media platforms

18
Strategy
● Strategic Partnership
○ Before the Event:
■ Contact the Office of Marketing and Communications
● Tammy Evans-Mitchell
● Office of Marketing & Communications |
Communications & Public Relations Manager
tamaraevans@txwes.edu | 817-915-8366 |
■ Coordinate with them and explain strategy, either in an
online or in person meeting
■ List things needed from Texas Wesleyan University
such as location, chairs, table, etc.
○ Booth
■ Host: The event will be hosted by a spokesperson from
the Fort Worth Report
■ TXWES:
● TXWES will provide the location, table, and chairs
as an event sponsor.
● Send pitch letters and press releases out to the
TXWES and student organizations to request
event sponsorship.
○ During the Event:
■ Set up
● Poster with Key Message: Free. Fair. Local.
■ Introduce themselves
■ Use scannable postcard QR code (Fort Worth Report
still has some)
■ Educate and inform
■ Build connections and state opportunities the Fort
Worth Report provides

19
Strategy
○ After the Event:
■ Use surveys to evaluate if awareness of the event week
was achieved by 50% among the students Texas
Wesleyan University Fall 2022
■ Determine if 500 flyers were distributed among the
students at Texas Wesleyan University an if they were
in every classroom and building on campus.
■ Evaluate if the event was executed and how effective
the implementation was.
■ Evaluate if the press releases, pitch letters and were
sent out via social media, TXWES and student
organizations.

20
Strategy
● Ads:
○ Kiosk
■ Will leave all semester long.
■ Key Message: Free. Fair. Local.
■ Run on Kiosk outside the library and the admin
building
○ Promotional Video on TVs on Campus
■ Will run every day leading up to the event
○ Stickers
■ Hand out to students
● This message will be printed on the sticker.

21
Budget
Estimated Charges:
Booth: $0
TV Promo: $0
500ct Standard 8x11 Flyers: $109.50
25ct Posters: $48.5
240ct Custom Stickers: $68.00
=$226
Justification
● We believe this will educate students on local, free and fair news.
The survey we conducted for the Fort Worth Report stated that
people don’t know who the Fort Worth Report is or what they do.
● People want free news and they mainly do get all of their news
online mainly from NBC.
● The Fort Worth Report also should focus on shifting their social
media from Facebook even though it is their top performer in the
current demographic 55+ to Instagram as the survey stated that
most people use Instagram rather than Facebook for the
demographic we looked at.

22
Recommendations
Evaluation
● Input Objectives
○ Use surveys to evaluate if awareness of the Fort Worth
Report was achieved by 30-50% among the students, faculty
and staff of Texas Wesleyan University.
○ Use surveys to evaluate if awareness was achieved by 50%
among the Texas Wesleyan University community by the
end of the semester.
● Output Objectives
○ Determine if 500 flyers and 25 posters were distributed
among the students at Texas Wesleyan University.
○ Evaluate if the event was executed and how effective the
implementation was.
○ Evaluate if ads, social media strategy and strategic
partnership were effective at Texas Wesleyan University

23
Recommendations
● Keep a communication log throughout the campaign’s
implementation.
● Maintain relationships with the community and student
organizations
● Utilize the campaign a timeline and calendar.
● Utilize an additional survey with more specific questions and do it
for a longer duration of time.
● Before the event do a pre-survey and a post-survey after the
event.

24
Appendix:
Key Contacts:
Name: Trish Rodriguez Terrell
Title: Chief Development Officer
Email:trish.terrell@fortworthreport.org
Cell: 817-691-0925
Name: Jamese Branch
Title: Marketing and Development Coordinator
Email:jamese.branch@fortworthreport.org
Cell: 817-729-8436

25
Appendix:
Research Materials
● https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2021/nonprofit-outlets-dedicated-to-covering-loca
l-news-and-communities-of-color-are-on-the-rise-report-finds/
● https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2021/the-19th-is-a-nonprofit-news-startup-made-f
or-the-moment/
● https://www.poynter.org/locally/2021/for-local-nonprofit-news-2020-was-a-very-good-year
-and-2021-will-be-even-better/
● https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2018/a-new-look-at-local-nonprofit-news-sites-fin
ds-revenues-of-more-than-325-million-2200-journalists/
● https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2013/report-urges-irs-to-ease-up-on-news-nonp
rofits/
● https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2016/25-ideas-nonprofit-newsrooms-cant-afford-t
o-ignore/
Research Materials
Fort Worth Report Branding Guidelines
Branding Guidelines.zip

26
Appendix:
Images from Survey:

31
Appendix: Audience and Public Analysis Graphics

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