What to Say When You Just Don’t Know
You’d be surprised by the number of people who show up to a meeting without reading the agenda, minutes or considering the possible topics of discussion.
Four Reasons Volunteering Builds Career Success
In a world where many of us are already struggling to maintain some semblance of work/school-life balance, it is certainly challenging to spend your spare time working for free. While many people pursue volunteer opportunities purely for altruistic reasons, volunteering…
Pitching a News Story: The Phone is Your Best Friend
In this email saturated world, it’s difficult to penetrate the din and connect with a journalist about your story idea. Granted, you probably have a great idea that includes many news elements or is a perfect fit for the media you’re pitching, but if you aren’t able to communicate it effectively to your targeted audience, your idea will sit by itself on your blog and/or be discussed amongst your colleagues around the water cooler.
Communicating to Different Media
There are many stories out there. Some are so important that every media outlet in your area, region or country will want to cover them. Other stories are of more limited interest to particular media groups. Identifying which stories will be attractive to which media will save you a great deal of time when it comes to communicating your idea. It can also significantly aid you in the development of your story pitch and allow you to be much more convincing when you are on the phone speaking with a journalist or producer. Here are some simple things to consider when you are deciding what, and for whom, is newsworthy.
Pluck and Persistence Will Drive Your Story into the News
Every company and organization has an interesting story to tell. Finding news and honing it into a finely crafted pitch is the first challenge. You want to make sure you’re “selling” the best “product” that you can. Here are a few factors to consider when it comes to what makes news, well, ‘news’. Once you’ve got your story down, the next step is to convince a reporter or editor that it has a place on a newspaper page as opposed to remaining lonely and forgotten on your organization’s blog.There are many ways to do this.
The Elements of an Effective News Story
Ever wonder why a spate of deadly car crashes makes the front page (or leads-off the news hour) while announcements about a new social enterprise that employs people with mental illness tend to get buried? It’s all connected to how “newsworthy” a story is considered by the editorial/production staff. Each day, thousands of producers and editors around the country are forced to rank what’s worth paying attention to and what they can safely ignore.
Vancouver Makes Life Easier for Binners
The city of Vancouver is trying out a new recycling pilot project by introducing a series of transparent bins near by garbage containers across the city, according to the Vancouver Sun. The aim of the program is to make it easier for binners to scavenge up cans and bottles.
The Pleasures of Biking the Czech Greenways
In Europe it seems different countries have their own unique “tourism claims to fame”. In France it may well be the haut cuisine, fashion and art. Austria has a world renown tradition of theatre and desserts (read Strudel) that are worth dying for. And then there’s the Czech Republic.
The Inspiring World of Adult Education
Last Friday, I got a chance to witness the hefty emotions and cathartic experience that graduation frequently elicits in people. It was a scene that I missed during my own graduation from high school thirteen years ago. When I graduated…
Our Future Community Project Charts a New Future for the VSB
Last night the Vancouver School Board released a massive report titled Vancouver School Board Sectoral Review: Our Schools, Our Programs, Our Future. The report presented dozens of important recommendations that if eventually adopted by the VSB, could have a profound impact…