wrote this a while ago (also 2006) - but I think it is as important now as ever. Ultimate's continued growth and publicity will continue to depend on grassroots efforts like high school teams pressuring local papers to cover them until/if/and when the UPA develops a comprehensive PR and marketing strategy for the future of the sport. And even then it is doubtful that their strategy could be so comprehensive as to extend to local leagues (though if I were developing it, it would do exactly that).
But I digress, if you are interested in getting your team some coverage here are a few tips for you...
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Hampton High school featured in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
very cool for Hampton and the Pittsburgh High School Ultimate League.
Read more at www.post-gazette.com/pg...
im not sure exactly how they went about garnering this coverage, but may i present this advice to anyone out there who is looking for some recognition for all the hard work they do for their respective team - press releases.
news organizations rely on press releases in a very big way to report the news. how is a newspaper supposed to know you are having a game, tournament or otherwise without you telling them? the news industry doesn't work through magic, nor esp, nor mindreading. and many many many times papers and magazines are looking for something new, fresh, interesting and exciting to print - and if you think like me, ultimate is all of those.
never written a press release before? fear not, they are extremely easy.
heres a little tutorial to get you started - http://www.stetson.edu/~rhansen/prguide.html
basically what you want to remember though is to make it sound as much like an actual news story as possible. you want to make the story appealing and easy to read, and make sure to include easily accesibly contact information.
writing a poor press release - with spelling or simple grammer mistakes can often have the opposite effect, turning an editor or reporter off to the idea of covering your event because it is so frustrating to read.
also, concrete things are always better. if you can hand your release over personally to someone in the office (or fax it) it is always better than sending an email which can easily be removed with the click of a button.
the more professional things look the better your chances.one final note - if you are interested in this type of stuff, start out small, no doubt you have a high school newspaper, talk to the guys on their staff, give them a press release, and then move up from there.
good luck, and if (when) you have any success feel free to email the site - playultimateblog@gmail.com to let us know and we can feature the news on the site.
Become a fan on Facebook! - Help spread the word about high school ultimate.
