Start Local: How Hometown Coverage Becomes National News

Plenty of racers want their first story to run in a national magazine or on network TV. The PR people at my Sponsorship Summits say that's backwards. National outlets find stories by watching local ones, and local outlets are the easiest place to get started. Start with your hometown paper and the TV station down the road, and treat every reporter as someone you'll work with for years.

Draw a 50-mile circle

Stuart Rollins of Stuart Rollins PR started as a runner on Fleet Street in London and went on to handle publicity for names from Freddie Spencer to Muhammad Ali. When I asked what he'd tell a racer with no story yet, he went back to the basics.

"I frankly would draw a map, get a map, look at about a 50 mile area and I would get every newspaper, every weekly newspaper, every magazine, every TV, every radio station within that area and I would get their emails and... their telephone numbers, direct lines," he said. A general switchboard number won't do; you need each reporter's direct line. The goal at first is modest: "all you're trying to do to start with is simply make yourself known to the local media." ▶ Watch Stuart Rollins explain this

He said it's hard work. He remembered driving Spencer from Laguna Seca to LAX: "We did 18 interviews on the way down. I called every radio station, every television station, every newspaper, every weekly newspaper, every college newspaper." It took all day. "PR is extremely hard work," Rollins said.

Don't pitch national without a national story

Dan Schechner, the former PRI Magazine editor now with Top End Consulting, put "start out local" at the top of his list of dos and don'ts. "Don't pitch national publications or media outlets if you don't have a national story," he said. "Everyone likes a local story. It's much, much easier to get in with the local media than it is to go national." ▶ Watch Dan Schechner on starting local

That isn't settling for less. At another summit, Schechner explained how national editors actually find stories now that newsrooms have shrunk and pulled reporters out of many areas. Community outlets, "the ones that are on the ball, they'll send their stories to wire services, and those get picked up by wire services, and then folks like me and bigger outlets that are on a national scale will pick those up from the local guys." Google Alerts work the same way. A story in your hometown paper can end up on a national editor's desk. ▶ Watch Dan Schechner on wire services

Climb the ladder one rung at a time

Elon Werner of Werner Communications, who runs media for NHRA drivers and the Texas Motorplex, laid out how he moves a story up using his hometown as the example. Land a piece in the Texarkana Gazette and "you share that everywhere." Take the links to the editor at the Dallas Morning News with a short note about who you are and where you're racing. If the Dallas paper runs it, go to the next level: "Take that story, you share it with the local Dallas TV stations: hey, the Dallas Morning News just did this. That's where they're mining a lot of their stories, and it just kind of builds on itself."

He's honest that "it is very hit or miss." The stories that climb usually have a hook, like three generations of racers or someone who overcame real hardship. But since newsrooms are getting smaller, he said, the easier you make it, the more likely you'll get the coverage. ▶ Watch Elon Werner explain the ladder

Bring the local news to the track

You don't have to wait for reporters to find the race. Trevor Hocking of Hi-Torque Publications, who produced years of off-road racing television, remembered how one racer he worked with handled it: "He would just call up the local news guy from Arizona on his own and bring them to our event and do a six o'clock hit in the morning on news." Hocking's challenge to racers: "Think of something you can bring to the series that may not be there either." If you're the one who brought the reporter, there's a good chance you're the one they write about first.

Hocking was also surprised by how many racers skip the free version. "I was shocked on how many people wouldn't even come to the media events," he said. "These racers just wouldn't go." Series and big events usually hold a media day where every outlet covering the race is in one room. Go, shake hands and hand out cards. His advice for small programs: "No matter how small you are, just start small, start now." ▶ Watch Trevor Hocking in the full session

Share every story you get

Getting the story is only half of it. "When you do get coverage as a racer, the best thing you can do is promote that coverage everywhere and encourage your friends, teammates, sponsors, share those links," Werner said. There's a practical reason: "In so many newsrooms editors are making coverage decisions based on clicks, and if they write a story and no one clicks on it, that means no one cares." A print edition might reach thousands of readers, but the newsroom can't measure that. Shares and clicks it can count, and they help decide whether you get covered again.

Then say thanks. "I'm also a big fan of the follow-up thank you note, whether via email or even a handwritten note," Werner said. "You'd be surprised how many relationships you can just foster and continue... just by being thankful." Find the writer's social tags and share it again. ▶ Watch Elon Werner on sharing coverage

Treat the small outlet like a big one

Werner learned early, working at John Force Racing, not to dismiss small outlets. The team made time for writers and early podcasters some people saw as fringe. Years later, one of them was covering NASCAR when Force ran a Jeff Gordon-themed No. 24 car at Charlotte. He asked Gordon about it at a press conference, Gordon praised the car and John Force, and that answer opened the door to more coverage. If the team had blown that writer off six years earlier, Werner said, the question never gets asked.

His rule: "Every media person is important no matter how large or small their outlet is, because a guy that's working at the Texarkana Gazette today could be at the Dallas Morning News tomorrow, could be at USA Today in three years." ▶ Watch Elon Werner tell the story

Rollins put it in terms of reputation. "You never ever argue with someone in the media, ever," he said. "You've always got to be able to go back," whether that's six months later or a year later. "What you have to do is make friends and make them know that you deliver." ▶ Watch Stuart Rollins on media relationships

The takeaway

• Build a media list for everything within about 50 miles of home and your home track, with direct emails and phone numbers.
• Pitch local first. Save national outlets for stories that are truly national.
• Use every published story to pitch the next outlet up: hometown paper, then the regional daily, then TV.
• Share every link, tag the writer, and send a thank-you note.
• Go to media days, invite local reporters to the track, and never argue with a reporter.