10 benefits to getting local news coverage for your brand

Some brand managers reach a point when their media relations expectations are more demanding.

Brand managers who cherish national news coverage and their marketing forecasts often dismiss regional and local newscasts. In-house PR pros, marketers and external communicators often decline to make themselves or their executives readily available to local media outlets, which they now characterize as small potatoes.

However, here are our top 10 reasons communicators would be wise not to blow off interview requests from local journalists:

1. Today's local TV news producers are often your best contacts on the national level after they jump a couple of jobs a few years down the road.
2. Your ignoring the local news is like presidential candidates' ignoring their core constituencies, the people who brought you to power and will support you when times are tougher.
3. You would rather stumble on the local news and make adjustments before appearing before the entire country.
4. Local news appearances help you to build a library of media experience, which national news producers might check out before putting you in front of a camera.
5. If you can survive the wacky technical problems that local news crews present, you can handle just about any on-air issue.
6. You never know what big shots are visiting town, seeing you on the local news and considering how your services might help.
7. The national news is often nothing more than identifying good local stories and retelling them with higher production values.
8. Local news coverage still offers one of the quickest ways to reach thousands, if not tens of thousands of people.
9. It's not uncommon for people who can't get on the news to pay for one of those on-air segments that look like the news. So don't pass up an invitation to take part in the real thing and earn some instant credibility.
10. The reason that parodies of local news, such as the one in "Horrible Bosses 2," are so funny is because they are spot on. Seize the day, and enjoy a behind-the-scenes experience, even if you consider it sensational and superficial.

[FREE DOWNLOAD: 11 Essentials for a Stellar Online Newsroom]

A version of this article first appeared on Flip Side Communications.

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