Re: The Ones We Miss

In a message dated 96-10-05 12:23:45 EDT, Cliff Golden wrote:

>In two weeks I have a Court of Honor where two new Eagle Scouts will
>receive a small amount of media attention. They won't warrant the weeklong
>headlines that Lyndon and his assailant received. They won't go through
>life wearing a bag either.

Cliff, see if you can do something to correct that.

I've not been an assignment editor for over 15 years, but I don't think my
news sense is wholly outdated. It seems newsworthy to me that two boys who
started a path with Lyndon several years ago chose "the path less travelled,"
as Robert Frost might put it, and wind up at a much different place that
Lyndon. It's "the rest of the story," it's "the other side of the coin;"
it's newsworthy by itself.

Now, how does news get made? Because someone calls attention to the "news"
to the assignment editors of media outlets. How do you do that?

Put out a press advisory that tells the date, time and location of the Court
of Honor. Make sure that headline mentions the connection: "Former
colleagues of shooting victim earn Scout's highest rank; ceremony Tuesday."

One brief paragraph gives the names, home towns and ages of the kids getting
the awards, and says they get the award. A second paragraph explains that
they entered Scouting at the same time as the recent shooting victim, but
have taken a different path.

Put in a "contact" name, probaby yours, with phone numbers so editors can
call you to get more details.

Mail them at least a week in advance to "Assignment Editor" at the closest
Associated Press and United Press International offices (probably Chicago for
you). Make sure copies go to the assignment desks at the Chicago Tribune and
Daily News, and the major television news stations. Get a copy to the
assignment desk at the Arlington daily paper (its name escapes me at the
moment). Copy it to the radio stations that do news. Don't forget the
nearest National Public Radio affiliate. Remember all the weekly papers in
your area.

Then call the Associated Press and ask for the "daybook" editor. Ask to get
the event listed there (news outlets are much more likely to cover something
listed in the AP daybook).

Drop a letter to the gossip columnists at the Chicago papers explaining the
story just as you did here. Ask, "Why can't we cast the spotlight on the
kids that do well? If news is really the 'out-of-the-ordinary,' then
certainly an Eagle Scout is newsworthy. There are fewer Eagle Scouts than
shooting victims in some towns. It's a tremendous achievement to earn the
Eagle rank. Yet shootings get the headlines every time." [NOTE: Someone
may want to check the national statistics; in my home town there were
probably a hundred Eagles to every shooting, but my sense is that is not the
case nationally, nor in some metropolitan areas.]

This is no guarantee that your new Eagles will get the newspaper space they
deserve, but it's better than not doing it. Remember Darrell's Rule of 10:
For every 10 press releases you send out, you get one article or broadcast
story (on average). If you want to get at least one story, you should have
at least ten outlets targeted for "advisories."

If you need some quick pointers on style for advisories and releases, e-mail
me.

Would continued membership in Scouting have kept young Lyndon from getting
shot? It's almost impossible to tell. I can tell you there are more former
Scouts in the astronaut corps than there are shooting victims. There are
more U.S. senators who were Scouts than shooting victims. I suspect the
ratios hold for virtually every area of inquiry and interest.

And what would happen if some local television station featured one Eagle
scout in a report for 90 seconds, once a week, for an entire year? Coverage
of Scouting would be increased by about 52 times, and some kid somewhere
would be inspired.

It's worth the gamble. Good luck.

Ed Darrell, Duncanville, Texas
(former press secretary -- can you tell?)

P.S. -- the piece you wrote for Scouts-L might be a good letter to the
editor, or if expanded to 700 words, a good op-ed piece. Think about it.

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