Most people who've worked in an office have done their share of presentations.
A presentation or slideshow for coworkers, the boss or a board of directors is a different animal than a presentation for the press.
You're not trying to inform decision makers and give them options.
With reporters and editors, you're trying to give them the material they need to do a story.
What the Press Wants -- and Needs
With every piece of your presentation, ask yourself how the media could use it. And if they can't use it, why include it?
Here's a quick list of some things the media looks for with any presentation:
- Headline ideas
- Ways to frame the story
- Pithy quotes and audio clips
- Stunning photos
- Great video
- Amazing facts or numbers
- Charts that make numbers understandable
- Maps that pinpoint where the story is happening
Giving the Press Raw Material
Now that you know what they want and need, it's time to give it to them, right?
Be careful here. You could spend hours creating a beautiful, high-definition chart that could be blown up and printed on a poster without any loss of clarity or quality. It could be the best-looking chart ever to grace a PowerPoint slide. And the press probably couldn't use it.
That's because newspapers and TV stations have their own style sheets, their own ways of doing charts and numbers. They use a palette of specific fonts and colors in their designs, and it's impossible to mimic that for three different newspapers and four different TV stations.
So what does the press need? They need the raw data. Sure, show them the beautiful chart. Then tell them you'll e-mail the data in Excel or a format they can use, so their graphic artists can create the kind of chart newspaper editors want and TV news producers can use.
Include the sources of your facts and numbers because they'll need to fact-check the data.
Make it easy on them. Give the press the raw materials.
The same is true for photos and video.
The rules for photojournalism are stricter than what professional photographers use. They'd rather have their own people shoot the photos or video.
If that's not possible, and you're the only source of key images, make sure to give them the raw photos or video whenever possible. Don't go crazy with Photoshop.
It's simply a good rule of thumb when dealing with the press: if they have a choice between something pre-packaged and edited versus the raw material, they'll want the raw material.