Your Guide to Local TV Broadcast in 2024
Recently, two of our Double Forte San Francisco team members visited KTVU FOX 2, a local Bay Area broadcast news station, in Oakland, California (fun fact: its website is the most popular online source for Bay Area news, surpassing the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate). During our visit, KTVU news directors gave us a tour of their newsroom, where we saw first-hand how chaotic it gets even on a Thursday afternoon. Afterward, we sat in one of their production studios, where we got coveted time with one of their news anchors and digital producers, to ask questions about what their team is looking for when they receive pitches and what stories they’re most interested in telling.
At Double Forte, we have long prioritized local media in our clients’ media strategies, especially in a 24/7 news cycle that is becoming more dynamic every day. In this environment, modern times, it’s imperative to get your local broadcast outreach right the first time.
Below, we’ve outlined a few tips we learned from our visit that every PR professional can utilize when conducting outreach to local news stations.
Provide EVERYTHING in your Initial Pitch
As we know, writers and journalists are inundated with pitches (a recent poll showed that they receive at least an average of six or more pitches a day). To make their lives and the “vetting” process easier, KTVU recommends including all the important and necessary information in the pitch itself, including if the expert you’re pitching is Zoom competent or if they live close enough to the studio for a visit. Like many other local broadcast news stations, KTVU keeps a Rolodex of contacts they can reach when they need an expert for a news story. The more information you provide and they have on your expert, the better your chances are of getting a call to get your expert on the air.
Contact the Newsdesk When it’s NOT Busy
News breaks at any given time, but news releases and announcements generally follow a cadence of happening during the week, meaning the newsroom is busiest during the work week. If you try to contact the newsroom during this time, you might not get through to someone, but if you do, your time to speak with them is very limited. KTVU recommends contacting the newsroom on the weekend when they have multiple people available to take calls and it’s technically the “slowest” time for their newsroom. This is also the best time to ask them who might be the right reporter to contact regarding your pitch. They’ll likely have the bandwidth to route you to the correct reporter.
Localize, Localize, LOCALIZE
New national trends and data are released almost every day, and local news stations are always trying to “localize” this information for a bite-sized segment during their local broadcasts. Similar to “newsjacking,” you’ll want to figure out how to best insert your client into this trending news story (if it makes sense) before public interest dies down. This goes along with our previous tip mentioned above: when pitching your expert, make sure you have all the relevant information included in your pitch. You’ll want to make sure it’s clear why and how your client/expert fits into the story and how readily available they are to speak with the news station.
Local broadcast news outlets – on the air and the internet – are increasingly valuable media sources for their communities. To leverage them well in your media relations strategy, make sure you’re being helpful, relevant and timely, so that you can bring your (or your client’s) expertise and story to light for the community they live and work in.
by Gabriel Muñoz