Water Hub Blog

Think beyond the paper: getting water news on TV

Many of us working in communications seem to be forever chasing the mythical front-page newspaper story. There are good reasons for this, of course. 

Newspapers have political clout, and reporters can do a lot more to explain what’s at stake in 1,000 written words than a short TV or radio segment. 

But how many of our audiences still get the paper? Increasingly, people are getting their news on phones and computers.

And while online news sites are growing fast, television remains the nation’s top news source. 

Research shows that audiences prefer to watch the news rather than read it. Television is the go-to, including for people looking specifically for water news

That is why the Water Hub asked our colleague Marlene Peralta, an award-winning journalist turned media strategist, to host a workshop for our partners on working with TV news. During our time together, we covered the reasons to focus on TV, the kinds of stories that work best, and tips for getting visuals, packaging pitches, reaching out, and following up. (We’ve captured her top tips here, and you can watch the full workshop recording below.)

If you’d like to strategize about a TV news pitch, please drop us a line. You can reach out to Nicole or Kimiko.

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