Communications is an essential part of what we do as a community. Environmentalists need to think proactively about strategy, message, distribution of messages and reactions to outreach. How do we set up our organizations to communicate effectively? How do we build the budgets, collect the tools, and raise the funds needed for communications and communications tools?
Many of us do not have communications training nor do we have the resources to spend on expensive conferences and training consultants. We are busy monitoring policy, working in the field, organizing our membership, fundraising, and keeping our groups afloat.
We have collected and developed a bank of valuable tip sheets, reference guides, planning tools, and templates that will help you improve your communications skills. These resources are available to you at no cost. We hope they will help you in your work and in the development of your communications strategy. We also hope that access to these kinds of resources will help your organization face its challenges whether they might be thinking about communications before a crisis occurs or training your experts to be good spokespeople.
We also encourage you to check out the training opportunities listed in the column to the right. Some are free and some have a charge, but we feel they’re worth exploring.
Want to hear some direct advice from a reporter? Hear what advice Public News Service offered to our members about press releases and working with reporters in the September Skills Training recording:
Access the streamed recording at the following link:
Our September Skills Training featured Skip Wood and Erick Mack of Public News Service, who offered advice for many good questions that members had about press releases, reaching reporters, and working with the media.
Before the training, both editors contributed a series of training documents to our training center on press releases and story telling.
You’ve crafted an award-winning press packet – all the information the media will ever need for your big event. But it only gets a couple inches in the paper, or a big storm arrives the same day your packet comes in the mail and the storm is the only thing that gets coverage. And even if you do attract some media, you’re disappointed because they left so much out!
The attached diagram from Skip Wood at Public News Service is an excellent visual framework of being strategic in the structure and framework of your press releases.
It includes many of the essential aspects including header, paragraphs, bullet points, and the strategic inclusion of additional information.
Key Components to Telling Your Story (and Getting the Press and Public to Listen) ...Form and Function (Design and Content)
Part 3 of 3
-Eric Mack
Key Components to Telling Your Story (and Getting the Press and Public to Listen)...Going to The Dark Side, and Coming Back
Part 2 of 3
Eric Mack, Public News Service
Skip Wood has been with Public News Service for ten years, first as producer/reporter and currently as editor. For the last eight years, he has also been a producer for "Hear It Now," a talk show on the Prairie Public radio network, a PBS affiliate. Before all that, he was news producer for KXJB-TV, Fargo for 21 years.