This is part of our series Inside the Newsroom: What Journalists Really Look for in Press Releases, based on interviews with journalists — including veteran reporters and editors — about how they evaluate press releases. Over the next several weeks, EIN Presswire will publish takeaways from those conversations.
Community editors, whose small team of reporters often focus on what’s happening in the communities they serve, look for press release content that genuinely adds something to the local outlet, especially when it ties directly to local readers.
Cheri Martin, a former community newspaper editor at The Wakulla News and the Gadsden County Times in Florida with decades of journalism experience, said she always scanned for “press release content that truly enhanced the paper with an eye toward local connections first.”
She pointed to the difference between pushing something that feels like self promotion or advertorial content and offering real news or feature value, saying the latter is what her newspaper preferred.
Her newsroom relied on a mix of outside content, including news releases, to fill gaps in coverage, from gardening tips to home organizing advice to features on regional attractions.
“All these basically saved me from paying for extra syndicated content,” she said, adding that one popular feature that “readers appreciated” was the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.
Martin said many of the features she used started as press releases about new books, including several she remembered coming through press release distribution platform EIN Presswire.
Most “regional press release content” that made it into her paper came from government agencies or was connected to festivals, cultural events or business announcements with clear relevance.
But she was blunt about the limits. “It’s harder at the weekly community newspaper level unless it’s pertaining to a local event,” she said. “Resources are scarce. Even legitimate community newspaper stories were sometimes relegated to photos and information submitted by community contributors.”
As for general advice for sending news, Martin said tight writing helps, and follow up matters. A quick phone call can surface the missing angle that gets a release published.
She recalled a PR rep who wanted coverage of a church’s disaster response efforts. “I said we needed a drop dead local connection and he found it for me and resubmitted.”
One more practical tip: many legitimate releases never reach editors at all, so it’s a good idea to reach back out to the newsroom. “A lot of legit press releases automatically ended in my spam filter,” she said.
That’s another reason to follow up. And once an editor uses your content, Martin said it’s worth asking them to add your organization as a trusted sender.