The First Steps

Before you begin creating a media plan, it is important to take a step back and think through your organization’s overall strategy. You must be able to identify your short- and long-term goals.

Identifying these goals will allow you to focus your efforts and determine what strategy would be most effective for achieving them. It is important to define specifically what you want to achieve with your media outreach.

Whether you are developing an overall plan advocating an expansion of the water pollution control program or are responding to specific attempts to cut funding in your state, it is important to identify what goals or outcomes your organization expects to achieve with its efforts. Typical goals include passing a piece of legislation, preventing the passage of legislation, educating the public, and giving voice to people affected by the issue.

The next step is to determine the target of your media outreach. Remember, the media is never a target; it is a conduit through which you can reach different target audiences. Some examples of targets include lawmakers, voters, opinion leaders, community leaders, and women. Be sure to maximize your resources by planning your outreach for a desired target audience.

Finally, it is important to identify the news and craft your message. Before you start your media plan, determine what reports, surveys, or briefings your organization can produce that will put a new spin on the issue. Include these elements in your media plan. Also, summarize any complicated issue in two or three main points to formulate your message. Construct your media plan so that these points are the focus of your media outreach.

Organizational Goals Worksheet

• What are my organizational goals?

• Who do I want to reach in order to achieve these goals?

• How will the media help me reach this target audience?

Develop A Plan Of Action

Once you have determined the goals, targets, and message of your media strategy, you can begin to develop a media plan. There are two ways to conduct press outreach- you can either be proactive or reactive. While there will always be instances when you must react to unanticipated events, you must be proactive with press outreach as well. Remember, press coverage always works best when it is part of an overall strategy or campaign.

The first step in developing a plan of action is to determine your calendar of events. Work backwards on a calendar from the end date, for instance the end of the legislative session, to determine the timing and sequence of any efforts. First, take your calendar and determine events that happen every year that your organization can use as a tool to get your message out. These events might include annual reports, state budget releases, bill introductions, or the start of the state legislative session. You should plan to use these existing hooks to generate press for your organization. After looking at your calendar, you can get a feel for when things are going to heat up or what the battle is going to look like during the course of your plan.

After you have determined what annual or anticipated events you intend to work around, you should determine what reports, surveys, or briefings your organization can produce that will put a new spin on the issue. Include these in your media plan as part of a broader media strategy for your organization or your issue specific campaign. These events or releases can help you draw attention to your issue and get your message out in an effective way.

Next, plan to do some preemptive press outreach to get the media thinking about the issue and perhaps even writing early. Some ways to do this include planning a letter-to-the-editor campaign or scheduling an editorial board meeting with your spokesperson to discuss the issue. This will not only allow you to get the media thinking and writing about the issue, but it will also establish your organization as a credible resource to reporters.

If you are developing a media plan for a specific legislative or public relations battle, you may want to plan a launch event. Most political or other major issue campaigns host a launch event to announce their campaigns. There is no reason why you cannot do the same. As part of this launch event, you can announce a petition-signing campaign or an effort to ask your governor to support a campaign, for instance to “protect our drinking water.”

You should also include other earned media events in your plan. Plan your calendar around themes on which your organization would like to focus. These themes should have a unified message, but should also highlight the different facets of this message. For instance, you may want to plan a press conference to announce the release of a report your organization has authored or to highlight the introduction of a bill.

Grassroots organizing can also be an element integral to your media plan. You can start a letter-to-the-editor drive to support your issue specific campaign. Letters to the editor are a common way to respond to events, but they also provide the opportunity to raise the issue and demonstrate that the issue at hand has strong support in the community. Staging a radio call-in campaign is yet another way to get your message out. When incorporating grassroots efforts in your media plan, it is important to set specific targets and goals of achievement. You should set goals for any letter- to-the-editor or radio call-in campaign so that you can evaluate them when these efforts are completed.

Possible Events To Add To Your Calendar

State of the State Address

State Legislative Session

Governor’s Budget Release

Bill Introductions

Annual Report Releases

Other Considerations

There are a number of other factors to take into consideration as you develop a media plan.

Resources. Determine the resources you have available for media efforts. This will help you to establish realistic goals. See the Resources box for questions you may want to ask as you develop your plan.

Time. The next element to take into account when developing a media plan is the element of time. Determining your timeline, opportunities, and limitations will enable you to organize and prioritize your activities. You should consider whether there are any specific projects that you would like to publicize or any studies or results you would like to promote throughout the duration of the plan. In addition, you should use existing hooks to get your issue in the media. For instance, you may want to latch on to the publication of a government or think tank report by releasing a statement highlighting your support for or opposition to its results. Other time considerations include working around yearly events. Be sure to work backwards on a calendar to determine the appropriate timing of your media outreach.

Media Outlets. There are a number of different media outlets that you may want to consider using for your media outreach. These outlets include newspapers, magazines, wire services, and television.

Newspapers

Letters to the editor allow you to respond to a story the paper has printed on the issue. Op-eds provide another effective way of expressing your opinions in the newspaper. Finally, editorial board meetings are good forums in which to explain your issue. Plan to meet your local paper’s ed board once a year, and prepare a packet of informational materials to supplement your visit.

Magazines

Magazine editors tend to look for “the big picture” and analysis of events and issues rather than straight news reporting. Most magazines work with a lead-time of several months.

Television

Television offers an opportunity to reach large and varied audiences. Remember to always pitch stories that have a visual element to television reporters and to contact them to cover special events.

Conclusion

Building a media plan is essential to being in the forefront of the issue or campaign you are planning. Whether developed to be consistent with your organizational goals or to a specific campaign or issue, a plan will provide you with basic guidance and strategy for your press outreach. As you build this plan, remember to first identify your goals, targets and message.

After this is completed, start to figure out the best way to get your message to your audience in order to achieve these goals. A media plan will help your organization to maximize its resources and time in order to effectively get your message out to the media.

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