Making a story plan

The key to success is to tailor your story for a particular journalist or media outlet. Your story will need to have a certain tone to suit The Mirror but you'll need to take a different angle when you pitch the idea to Newsnight. The more you know about the media outlet you want to approach the more likely your story will be picked up.

Try our Volunteer Genie Story Planner. Work through the short questionnaire to help you decide about the coverage you want to achieve with your story.

Planning time

If you’re reacting to a breaking news story and hooking into the news agenda then you’re going to have to work very fast to sell your story – sometimes within minutes. But if you’ve come up your own fresh story, campaign or feature idea then give yourself as much planning time as you can.

Remember to take into account each media outlet’s planning systems and deadlines. For example, most magazines will have their editorial content planned and commissioned up to 3 months before the magazine hits the newsstands.
Don’t be afraid to call a media outlet and ask them what you want to know. Do they have a forward planning team? When’s a good time to call them with a story? When’s the next editorial meeting? And who’s the best person to contact with a story idea? More on this in the section What journalists want.

Be adventurous

Just because your story is connected to volunteers or charities, doesn’t mean that you can only approach the charity pages of a publication or community friendly programmes. Be brave and find a way to hook your story into other unexpected places and media outlets.

Don’t just go for the news pages and bulletins – try making a feature out of your story. Many features writers and lifestyle programme producers say that they are never approached by charities with stories. They are always desperate for fresh ideas. Read more about this in VAMU’s research report, Culture clash?, about the relationship of charities and the media.

Get targeted

Once you’ve decided which media outlet you want to approach you need to work out what would make your story work for them. Remember a journalist’s primary role is to service their readers, viewers and listeners. They aren’t there to help you get your volunteering message across. Your story has got to appeal to a journalist’s particular audience.

Try and get into the journalist’s mindset. You may not read women’s magazines, but if you’re targeting one, try and imagine what story they’d want for their pages.
You may not like the media outlet’s style, but pretend you love it! It will help you inspire that journalist and write a good press release for them.
Do your research and find out what you’re going to need to supply with your story. Does that media outlet only run stories with real life case studies? Do they only run stories with photos? Are they only interested in stories about women under the age of 30?

Have a look at the free insider info to help charities be more targeted in their story approaches to media outlets on askCHARITY’s Media Directory.

What makes a strong story?

VAMU recently carried out research with journalists and programme makers and asked them if they were interested in stories about volunteering. Their response was clear. A good story is a good story. They didn’t care whether it was about volunteers or not, they just wanted strong stories.

Every media outlet will want something different from a story. But here are a few basic elements which can help make a story stand out:

A strong human interest story with a good case study. See how Time Together did this.
Facts and figures. New statistics. See how the Samaritans did this.
An exclusive. Access to a story no one else has. See how Parentline Plus did this.
A story that’s relevant to a current trend, national debates or the local news agenda.
Something no one knows. Surprising facts.
Something unusual, shocking or urgent.
A campaign the journalist can get behind and get involved with. See GMTV's Britain on the Move campaign. See how Cheltenham Volunteer Centre and British Heart Foundation got journalists to volunteer.
The story of some kind of triumph in adverse circumstances. See how Home-Start did this
Great photos. See how Hearing Dogs for Deaf People did this.

Find out more in the section What journalists want. For information about hiring a photographer have a look at the article Hiring help.

Keep it simple

Journalists are usually juggling several stories at any one time. To make sure you get the charity mention and key message you want included in the coverage, keep the story simple.

Don’t make your story too complicated or they won’t grasp what it’s about.
You need to present them with one clear story message and you need to be able to explain it in just a couple of sentences.

Read the next article in this section... Press releases and writing skills