How to Build a Newsroom in Your Organization That Lands You Coverage in the New York Times

Whether you’re a PR, marketing or communications department of one or a team of 100, your organization trusts you. It relies on you to do the difficult job of distilling your message and writing it perfectly, but then also pushing it through a crowded, chaotic content landscape into the right hands. In this session, Rotary International’s Petina Dixon-Jenkins will reveal how Rotary assembled the perfect team of writers and communicators to launch an enviable integrated communications and media plan operating under the hashtag #endpolio. Her team’s structure mirrored the “beats” a traditional publication would have: PR, celebrity engagement, social and digital media. Rotary tested messages to learn what influenced and moved people to action on all channels. Its media plan worked so well, it landed Rotary a TIME magazine cover and a front-page New York Times article.

Session Highlights:

• How to launch a memorable, powerful message in a large organization (Rotary has more than a million members)
• The importance of finding media partners who are the right fit. First step: Identify who is covering similar stories
• How to find new and different story angles when it seems they’ve been exhausted
• How you can set up a “field visit” to get reporters interested in your subject
• How to create a striking, stand-out hashtag that reaches people all over the world