How do you make a good relationship with a newspaper so that you can get new contacts?

Newspaper relationships are probably the most difficult relationships to form. Often a newspaper will have different departments that look after advertising, human interest stories, editorials and daily news. If you know one person in a department, it does not necessarily get you credibility into another department. A client I had in the past needed to have a good relationship with the newspaper because they wanted to launch a new product that would impact the labor force. The client had been an advertiser in the paper for years but was finding that he was having difficulty gaining entry into the other parts of the newspaper. As it turned out, he was not really involved in the community and the paper was only interested in stories where company's had community involvement.

My client joined two organizations that were held in regard as far as community was concerned. He joined the groups that he knew reporters or paper representatives also belonged. Once he became involved, he got to know the other people from the newspaper and soon had no problem getting press releases read. Without the personal contact and some common interest, newspaper relationships are not likely to happen.

Newspaper stories are good for getting your name known in the community. In most areas, people do read the local press. If someone reads an article about you, they may give you some recognition and they will certainly know where you work. Besides newspaper stories there are also special announcements called Press Releases that will allow you to make announcements of new contracts, changes in personnel or the launching of a new product.