How to Use the Power of the Press for Your Church
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket,
but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others,
so that they may see your good works
and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:15-16
A positive article about your church in the local newspaper will do more good for the congregation than any advertisement in the paper. Getting in the paper from time to time is easier than you may think if you use a bit of creativity. A perfect example of this is a recent article in the Moultrie Observer on St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church.
The article, Church service involves children every Sunday, highlighted the role of acolytes in the liturgy. While the role of children in our worship is not uncommon in liturgical churches, it is very different from how kids worship in other churches. Most importantly, this was a positive article shared with the community. Even if a reader has a church home and so would not ever see this article and be interested in attending, the net effect remains that the visibility of the church has been raised and some bit of understanding for our worship has been conveyed.
The Rev. Walter Hobgood, Vicar of St. Margaret’s says, “The article was written by Marty Steiner, a member of St. Margaret’s, and sent to a contact of his at the newspaper.” He add that it sat there for several weeks before it ran. As for results, it may take time to appreciate what impact the article has.
Hobgood does say, “While conducting the Thursday morning Eucharist at Christ Church Valdosta the week after the article ran in Moultrie we had a guest attending from Moultrie (she is Baptist). After church she asked me if I was the priest from Moultrie to which I said yes. She said she had seen the article and was impressed with what the kids had to say about the service and their excitement.”
How to get noticed
A bit of serendipity is always involved in what newspapers run and how they play it. St. Patrick’s Pooler sent a note to the Savannah Morning News letting the paper know about their Trunk or Treat at Halloween one year and ended up with a front page, above the fold photo with the name of the church clearly in the caption. Anyone in Pooler, would pay special attention as the smaller town is rarely on the paper’s front page for anything but bad news.
Irregular Sleeping Patterns Sleep has a significant role in the development of children suffering sildenafil 50mg tablets from physical disabilities and many other conditions. The reason for its cheap is that this medicine start working in 15 minutes cheap professional viagra that is the minimum time of starting the work of Kamagra. If you experience any of these side effects, you should get at least eight hours of quality sleep every day and abstinence from alcohol, nicotine generic cialis online and other drugs. They shift in their chairs to make eye contact with each other under the moose’s belly or to see past it to the front of viagra for sale mastercard the physician or the local drug supplier.
My wife, Victoria, and I worked for two different newspapers in the years right out of college and she later worked as a section editor at the Brunswick News. Through this work I saw how the newspaper has a seemingly insatiable need for stories about the community. I also saw how press releases get filtered based on 1) what else the newspaper already has on hand, 2) how newsworthy the information is, 3) how recently similar news ran.
Two Examples
Knowing this, you have a chance to get in your local paper a few times a year at most, so unless you haven’t been featured in some time, you will want to pick noteworthy events to highlight or give an interesting slant on a common event. For example, newspapers will be looking for stories around Holy Week and Easter. Our Easter Vigil services connect to a very ancient liturgy which is not well known and do so in ways that are very news photo friendly. A press release about the vigil, sent weeks in advance to the department or reporter you have seen featuring similar stories is likely to attract interest even in a larger market like Augusta or Savannah.
Similarly, a press release on a congregation member with an interesting ministry can get attention. Who do you have in your church that is doing good in the community? How might you share that with the newspaper. One example would be a press release on an upcoming free health clinic or a mission trip that emphasizes not the clinic or the trip, but a community members longtime commitment to a project. The news angle would be the local dentist who has faithfully volunteered time overseas or the school nurse who cares for the poor for free for many years.
The bottom line
Remember that the newspaper needs news. Create a press release that gives a human interest or news angle to something going on in your church. Send these in a from time to time, making sure not to flood the paper with releases and so making any given release easier to ignore. Be sure to mention the appropriate phone numbers and email addresses to contact for further information and provide photos or let them know when photos could be taken. The easier you make all of this on a newspaper editor, the more likely the release will succeed.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
Comments are closed.