Media relations in not for profits

The theme of today’s post is about media relations at Clubs WA – what is being done now, what could be done, how and why.

When I started this unit I told myself I was going to write a blog post at least every second week so I could keep a good record of what I was  getting up to at Clubs WA. But here I am just doing my fourth one - I really underestimated how busy this semester was going to be! Which I am sure all of you understand.

On top of my internship which is 30 hours a week, I am still doing a full course load, which included the mammoth unit to cap off my journalism major, Print Production.

This unit is insane, but I have definitely learnt more from this class than any other journalism unit, so for any of you doing journalism as a second major or degree definitely enroll in this unit!

This unit involves subbing every single journalism article submitted for assessment from second and third year students, at least six times, and then designing and producing the Curtin University newspaper, the Western Independent.

All the units I have done throughout my journalism and public relations degree have improved my attentions to detail, time management, and writing skills and I’ve come away with a whole new appreciation for the written word. I am a massive advocate for gaining real-world experience throughout my university degree, and PR393 and Print Production have done this more than any other units.

The Western Independent finally went to print today so make sure you keep an eye out for it around campus tomorrow to read the great news articles written by the Curtin journalism students. Now that this unit is over, I can finally make a decent dent in my PR report! I have had ideas and information floating around in my head for the past three months, and as soon as I have submitted this post I am going to start writing it all down.

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Media relations at Clubs WA

Communicating with the media is such an important part of corporate communications, and helps to generate publicity and could eventually influence investors, employees, customers and consumers. Clubs WA needs to increase its involvement with the media, in order to amplify its reputation amongst the West Australian community.

Media releases

I have been at Clubs WA for about 14 months now, and in that time media releases have only been sent out on four occasions.

1. January - to announce the launch of Clubs WA's Fair Go For Clubs Campaign
2. May - to announce Clubs WA meeting with south-west clubs in Bunbury to discuss the big issues facing regional clubs
3. April - to announce finalists, and then the winner of the 2014 Clubs WA Awards for Excellence
4. June - to announce the retirement of Clubs WA's Executive Director Peter Seaman, and to congratulate Karen Giles on taking up the position 

Looking at the above releases that have been sent out, you can see so far media releases have only been sent out to announce Clubs WA events.

Media outlets

Clubs WA’s media list hasn’t been updated for more than a year, and this was evident when media releases were sent out and the majority of them bounced back.

The goal of sending out media releases should be to promote Clubs WA as THE voice, and expert on the WA club industry. It should be made clear that if a story is published on a sport or social club, whether positive or negative, the journalist should automatically seek out comment from Clubs WA. Skimming over WA’s most popular regional and city print newspapers, there is at least one story written on a WA club in every issue. If Clubs WA were to become known enough that they were sought out for comment on even half of these articles, Clubs WA could increase their brand awareness so much!

I think if Clubs WA were to write releases with the angle being on a particular club, and just a small comment from Clubs WA within the article, they would have more of chance of getting an article published.

Journalism and public relations 

Journalism students are taught throughout their degrees that public relations consultants are media hungry, propaganda-spouting people who are only on this planet to send out agenda-setting media releases, and to be the annoying middle person between journalists and the truth. This is why public relations officers need to build strong relationships with journalists and media outlets.