Credit Union Management magazine’s “Inside Marketing” column runs the third Thursday of every month.

If one of your marketing goals is to leverage the news media to spread the word about your credit union, then your message to the press better be newsworthy. If not, no editor worth his/her journalistic reputation will consider your press release, article pitch, Op/Ed piece, etc. for publication. It’ll be a wasted effort on your part. Make sure your credit union’s news items are newsworthy to catch the interest of that editor for valuable and objective exposure.

So what is newsworthiness? Newsworthiness is anything that is topical. These are stories that contain the attention-grabbing requirements that keep readers returning to their preferred publications for more interesting content. This interesting content ensures readers that they are well informed with the latest information. Nobody wants to read old news. It’s like a joke: A joke is usually funny the first time, but the second, third and fourth time – not so funny. It’s old news.

Ensuring your news is newsworthy avoids this stale, uninteresting news issue. That said, there are seven newsworthy elements to look for within your credit union that interest editors. In fact, editors are taught these same elements to discover interesting stories for their readers. So if you provide editors with topics that fulfill these elements, you’ve helped them with their job. They will be very grateful because it shows you know what they’re looking for in a story. You’ve just made their job easier – which helps a lot in getting your story placed in their publication, broadcast, blog, newsletter, etc.

The seven elements of newsworthiness for your credit union’s news include:

1. Impact: These stories are events that change people's lives, such as raising taxes, curing cancer, opening a new freeway, providing a new financial service like remote deposit, etc.

2. Timeliness: These stories refer to how long ago an event happened. The more recent the better. (Please refer to the “old joke” explanation above.) Everybody likes being the first to get news. It makes them feel important because they can help spread it to their network as well. This “spreading the news” is more vital than ever in today’s hyper-viral social media environment.

3. Prominence: These stories focus on prominent people or organizations – even if they're doing minor things. Prominent organizations and people like Hillary Clinton, Brad Pitt, Michael Jordan, Paris Hilton, Microsoft, NFL, Barack Obama, etc. can do just about anything and make the news. For your credit union, perhaps you have partnered with a well-known charity or SEG or just hired a leading executive that’s well known in the industry. This is news.

4. Proximity: These stories cover events that occur close to home or within our industries. Perhaps your credit union opened a new branch or two within the community; that’s news to the community. Or the semi-recent TARP funds bailout directed at the financial services industry: How did this government move affect credit unions and the industry as a whole? Bring a national or global event close to home. It’s called “macro-micro” or “localizing” the news.

5. Conflict: These stories occur when people or organizations disagree, fight, or argue – especially when they are of prominence. That's big news. Being in the financial services industry, there’s no bigger conflict than the one involving banks vs. credit unions.

6. The Bizarre or Unusual: These stories cover rare events. Remember Y2K? My, what a bizarre “scare” that was. More recently is the obvious financial industry crash along with the corporate credit unions’ mismanagement of their investments that has managed to take down many vulnerable credit unions. This event is unusual – from which the industry is still trying to recover.

7. Currency or Trends: These stories cover issues that have current interest such as the economy, approaching holidays, sporting events, TV shows, movies, etc. Trends would be a good example. Mobile banking technology is a good example of this trendy news element, along with all the merging credit unions in the last couple of years. Also, Reg. E and the whole financial reform affect credit unions. Editors are always looking for trends stories from the experts – who better than credit unions to fill this bill for financial management topics.

So when brainstorming a news item from your credit union to send to the media, keep these news elements in mind. Again, most good editors adhere to these elements and will appreciate it when you provide them with these juicy nuggets of news that they can actually use. Then you'll create a reputation of providing quality, educational news from which their readers will benefit, which will equal more placements and exposure for your credit union in the press.

Mike Lawson, principal of the PR/marketing firm DML Communications, has two decades of journalism, public relations and marketing experience. His unique and robust knowledge allows him to meet the varied needs of editors, end-users and clients. Lawson's expertise enables him to enhance his clients' market exposure through media relations, social media tools, advertising efforts, target marketing strategies and more. He also speaks on PR, marketing and media issues to audiences nationwide. For more info, visit www.dmlcommunications.com.