The Holiday News Cycle

(Cont'd)

...plenty of free publicity.

Taking advantage of timing your stories will also be important in the coming weeks. There are windows of opportunities that come with long weekends and holidays like July Fourth, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Regardless of what day of the week the actual holiday falls on, there are usually three to five days that surround that day where there is a very slow news cycle. This means the story you pitch that may be slightly weak gets prominent placement in the newspaper that it may not otherwise get. Even though most of us have off for part of the holiday, the newspapers still have to get printed for a five-day stretch, the TV and radio news is still broadcast daily and the decision makers are scouring trusted sources for “undated” stories and content to help them do their jobs. For example, leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, we planned several undated news interviews, press releases and a letter to the editor that were all written, edited and approved by the clients the week before the holiday. We spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week sending out these items to news departments and arranging interviews. They can then “sandbag” stories and use them on Thanksgiving Day, the day after, through the weekend and into Monday.

I encourage you to plan ahead for Christmas and New Years and take advantage of this news window.

Happy Holidays/Happy Pitching!