To make the news, you have to make news
A project in June 2008 from Palin Communications has confirmed the age-old adage of healthcare PR – that the news agenda is driven by those who commit the resources to create news.
If you want news outlets to get interested in your products and themes, you need to be prepared to invest your PR resources into the research, the event, the talent and the case studies that will create a news package.
We’re regularly asked “Why do such and such always get good PR?” The answer is that they do more than just speak to media about themselves – they commit the resources to create news.
Consider Australian Hearing and the recent launch of their new report “Is Australia Listening?” Their report turned an online survey of 1,000 consumers about the prevalence of unsafe MP3 use and community perceptions of hearing aids into a major national TV and print news story.
Anyone could have prompted news outlets about those interesting themes. But Australian Hearing owned the news agenda because they commissioned and owned the latest research which helped news journalists build stories around the latest developments.
