The local paper, the county radio station and the neighborhood news site are often one or two people covering everything from the school board to the fall festival. Understanding how they work is most of what you need to know about getting covered.
How a small newsroom works
The reporter is short on time and long on obligations. Each week they need a certain number of stories, and the easiest ones to run are the ones that arrive complete: a clear event, a quote, a photo and a way to confirm it. A candidate who makes that easy gets covered. A candidate who sends a vague paragraph with no date gets a polite nothing.
They are also not your enemy and not your friend. A good local reporter will cover your announcement and will also cover the forum where you stumbled. Treat them the same both days.
Before you reach out
Have your website live with your photo, your three issues and a contact line that is the campaign number, not your personal cell. Reporters check the site before they call, and an empty one ends the conversation.
Find the actual person. Read the paper for two weeks and note who writes the local government stories. Get their email from the byline or the staff page. Sending to a generic news address is like mailing a letter to a building.
The first email
Send it the week you announce. Keep it under two hundred words:
- Subject line: who you are and what happened. "Dana Reyes announces run for Ridgeview school board."
- First paragraph: the news in one sentence, with the date and place of the announcement.
- Second paragraph: why, in the three sentences from your index card.
- A quote from you that sounds like a person said it, two sentences at most.
- A line about you: what you do, how long you have lived in the district, any relevant service.
- The campaign number, email and website, and a note that a photo is attached.
Attach one good photo, the headshot or the one taken in the district, as a full-size file. Use the press release outline on this site as the skeleton.
After you send it
Do not follow up the same day. If you hear nothing in three days, send a two-line note: "Checking whether this reached you; happy to talk any time at the number below." Then stop. Reporters remember pestering.
When they call
Answer or call back within the hour. Assume everything you say can be printed, including the small talk. Answer the question that was asked, briefly, and then stop talking; the silence is not an invitation to keep going.
If you do not know something, say so and offer to find out, then actually find out and send it that day. Never guess at a number on the phone.
If you are asked about an opponent, talk about what you would do instead. Local readers dislike attacks and reporters know it.
Showing up
Go to the events the reporter covers: the council meeting, the ribbon cutting, the Friday game. Introduce yourself once, briefly, and then let them work. Over a few months you become a known face, and known faces get the call when a story needs a candidate's reaction.
Letters and columns
Most local papers run letters to the editor, and many will take a guest column from a candidate on a local issue. A letter from a supporter about why they back you is worth more than one from you. Ask three supporters to write, give each a different issue, and have them send it themselves.
Corrections
If the paper gets a fact wrong, email the reporter politely with the correct information and the source. Do not post about it. Most corrections run within a day when they are asked for kindly.
Rules about money, disclaimers and reporting depend on your state and your office. Check them on Campaign Compliance Hub before you act.