Approach the media only when there are no legal proceedings.
If you want to attract the media with your bailiff story, approach them.
These relations comprise all your contacts with reporters, editors, program producers, and others in the print and broadcast media. Your aim is to generate favourable coverage of your bailiff experience.
The stronger and more sensational your bailiff story is, the more likely the media will cover it.
Remember, media producers will always edit to their own agenda, not yours.
The media's primary concern is with what's newsworthy, so working with the media requires a lot of hard work. You can't get to know the media overnight and, you can't expect maximum coverage unless you communicate by mail, by telephone, and in person.
Keep in mind that the duty of media professionals begins with their publication or station and with the interests of the people they reach - their market.
They also have a responsibility to maintain editorial distance, and from the story they cover. They try very hard to remain aim, not to play favourites and be emotionally detached from outside contacts.
Your story begins with your bailiff experience and how to convey your interests to your audience. When you work with the media, you must perform a balancing act between what you want to say and the needs of the media.
That's the way it always will be. To you, your story is special; to the media, it's one among many. Therefore, besides getting to know editors, reporters and broadcast
producers, you need to take certain actions or develop certain attitudes that will allow you to play with the media for the best results.
If you call media people with a story idea, they will require you to send something in writing. It's much easier for them to take a straightforward chronicle of your story than to piece it together from a telephone conversation
Also, they can look at your material when they have the time to focus on it. Your approach letter is your formal introduction to the media person.
In it, you will describe yourself and your story, why your story would interest their audience. You want to convince the media that your story is worth covering, and it is of public interest.
Target the media you think will be interested in your story, then call to find out who would cover it.
Get the precise spelling of that person's name, their title, the correct mailing address, and a phone number if it differs from the one you called. This may sound elementary, but professionals in the media complain about receiving letters with misspelt names and incorrect addresses.
If you make errors like these, how do they know that you aren't just as careless with the information you're sending them?
Your approach letter must be concise and one A4 page.
You send it to the chief editor of a local newspaper, the news director of a local radio station, and the person in charge of the assignment desk for a local television news program.
You can also approach a newspaper feature editor or the coordinator of an afternoon radio talk show. Once you develop a media kit, discussed below, you can enclose it with your approach letters.
Press releases are an important part of a PR campaign and the primary means of getting your story to the media, they structure all press releases the same way.
Press releases should be double-spaced.
It should be on plain white paper and printed with black ink. Editors look at hundreds of press releases every day, and if yours is difficult to read, they will bin it.
Your letterhead should also be at the top of the first page, to establish your identity. You can make a special letterhead for this purpose if you choose.
No typos or grammatical errors, press releases containing such errors will get a negative reaction.
Should be typed and not hand-written. Print out (or type out) a fresh copy for each person to whom you send it. Do not send out poor-quality photocopies with dark staple marks or blotches.
Who
What
When
Where
Why
And how
Put the most important facts in the lead paragraph, with the facts decreasing in importance as you go down the page. Why? If you send a press release to an editor who has five inches of space, and your release runs eight, the editor would trim your release from the bottom. Therefore, put the less important things there.
You need a contact source. In the top right-hand corner of the first page, there should be a line that reads "For further information, contact:".
A telephone number and name should follow. The editor must have somebody to call to answer questions or to be interviewed.
The best press releases have a dateline, the date you wrote the release before the text begins. Every press release needs a dateline so the editor can tell when you gave it. Nobody wants to cover an old story that has lost its meaning. If you expect to get free press coverage, then take care of this detail.
If your release runs longer than one page, put "more" at the bottom of each page except the last, and put "end" at the tail end of the last page. Always number each page in the top left-hand corner.
You can improve your chances of receiving media attention if you include a picture or a screenshot of a bailiff document with the written material. Newspapers will use black and white images while a magazine would prefer colour.
Bailiffs causing or threatening to break and entering when no rules provided for it
Charging thousands in fees for work not done
Bailiffs causing personal injury or assault
Children being exposed to civil enforcement
Businesses forced to close because of unlawful bailiff action
Bailiff crime performed in front of police officers who failed to intervene
You are a victim of enforcement for a debt that is not yours
Bailiff companies that break the same regulations.
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