Local
Business Journals
What
they want and
why you need them now more than ever
According to the new Giving USA report from the American Association of Fundraising
Counsel, corporate giving in 2001 was down 14.5 percent nationwide.
With charities of all types scrambling for a piece of the shrinking
corporate pie, it's more important than ever for your museum
and its mission to have a high profile in your local business
community.
The best way to accomplish this, of course, is through personal
contact. When it comes to building corporate awareness of your
institution, nothing beats active involvement in local business
associations and going out on the community service club "speakers
circuit."
But there's an additional and very effective vehicle for getting
your organization's name out there, and it's one that many institutions
still completely overlook: local business journals. Almost every
state and major city has at least one, often more, and they're
always hungry for stories.
The public relations gift that keeps
on giving
Building good relationships with reporters and editors at business
publications in your area can result in a lot of ink -- in articles
that highlight your organization exclusively, in multi-source,
in-depth features and in pieces where you're quoted as an expert
source. And there's another benefit as well. Unlike a story in
your local newspaper, an article about your organization in a
local business journal can have remarkable reach and longevity.
American City Business Journals, for example, the country's
largest publisher of metropolitan business newspapers, has an
alliance with Microsoft. Anyone logging on to msnbc.com or to
Microsoft's popular small business site, bCentral.com, can access
news from all of American City Business Journals' 41
regional publications.
And while stories in local newspapers are usually available
on the Web for only a few weeks, articles published in business
journals often live on indefinitely -- with prominent rankings
in the search results at major search engines.
As a result, an article about your institution appearing in
the print edition of a business publication this week is likely
to still be being read on the Internet two or three years from
now. And you never know who might be reading it. Journalists,
for instance, often use archived articles when they're doing
background research or looking for new story ideas. A number
of pieces I've written for this website, in fact, came from ideas
sparked by things I read while surfing business journals from
around the nation.
"We're a nonprofit. Why would
a business journal be interested in stories about us?"
Whether you realize it or not, people in your local
business community are curious about your institution. They're
interested in knowing how it works, how it's funded and what
it feels like to have responsibility for great works of art,
exotic animals or the preservation of local history.
And while you, as a nonprofit, may not realize -- or may not
yet want to accept -- how much you really do have in common with
those in the for-profit sector, most business journals are already
well aware of it. Take a little time to find the right angle
for your pitch and they'll be more than willing to give you coverage.
Getting the angle right
What kind of stories appeal to these publications? Just about
anything except the standard "poor us" angle that too
many nonprofits have been using for far too long. Business journals
and their readers don't want to hear your plaintive pleas for
money. They do want to hear about:
- Ways in which your institution is tying into or being affected
by current marketing and cultural trends, regional economic conditions
or national news events
- Successful marketing, PR and customer service strategies
you've implemented
- Creative corporate partnerships you've formed
- New technologies you're using
- Your expansion plans
- Exhibitions or promotions you have coming up that can provide
a boost to the local economy
- Unique facilities and programs you have available for corporate
meetings and events
- Behind-the-scenes glimpses into your day-to-day operations
- A day in the life of your chief executive
A few actual examples
To give you a feel for the wide variety of feature
articles business journals do about nonprofits, here are a few
examples drawn randomly from publications in different parts
of the country:
Making the connection
Not familiar with the business journals published in your area?
Or not sure where to send your releases or whom to call when
you want to pitch a great story idea? Bibliomaven.com has compiled
a state-by-state
list of links to regional business journals on the Web, and
American City Business Journals provides a well-organized contact
page with direct links to complete editorial contact information
for each of its 41 publications.
Happy Pitching!
For
links to more information about working with the media, visit
the Advertising
and PR section
of the MuseumMarketingTips.com Links Library.
Copyright © 2002 Katherine Khalife
All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, please e-mail kkhalife@museummarketingtips.com
Katherine
Khalife is publisher of MuseumMarketingTips.com
and the Museum Marketing Tips e-newsletter, used every month
by thousands of cultural institutions seeking practical tips
to improve their marketing.
