From a reliable Oakland Press source.
Want to get your story or better yet a free advertisement in the Oakland Press?
Here's how; You don't need to be a good writer or photographer.
There are two ways to get free "ink." First, and the easiest, is to just send a fax or email to the editor or city editor. Outline what you want covered. ie; say you have a new business,? it need not be new, just say so.
A used dress shop, a hamburger joint that is cerebrating its first year in business, or say a barber that is retiring after a decade in the same location. All of that is ok, just outline it and almost without a problem a reporter ( or one of the new unpaid "citizen reporters") will take a picture and give a non-factual, one-sided glowing coverage of a story that only you care about.
If you're able this works even better: Supply a decent photograph and a story telling how great your business is. Look! It's done every day in the Oakland Press. If you are in public relations and need to give your client a boost just e-mail your story, all packaged-up to the Oakland Press and, Bingo! there it is on the front page. News content is not a requirement.
Just fill space. Good luck, but you will not need much to be a hero to your company. 'Almost forgot, if your retiring from any job for any amount of years it almost a given you will get a story published. Just ask.
Catpaws.
Don't blame the lower editors for this one either. They are very short staffed and the leadership basically believes that it doesn't matter what you put in the blank space around the ads.
I once worked as an editor for the Ingham County News and a business owner called me to say if we would do an article, he would buy an ad. "Now," I told him, "would you want to read a newspaper filled with gratuitous articles like that?" He admitted he would not. I convinced him that a good readable newspaper, filled with articles people actually wanted to read would be the best way to make his ad work. Don't remember if he bought an ad, but we did not do the story.
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1 comment:
Keep the scoops on the Oakland Press coming. I worked there once upon a time, and still have nightmares about it. The pay was horrendous, the hours were long (and heaven forbid you ever asked for overtime) and the powers that be didn't give one rip about you as a human being and didn't care about your professional development.
It also seemed like the quality of your work never seemed to matter to them -- if you were one of the pets, you got promoted. If not, then you were out of luck.
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