Nine factors that determine news value by Brian Camen

Since this blog is dedicated to new PR professionals, it’s always important to be reminded of the basics. The following are nine factors that determine news value (originally posted on my blog, The PR Practitioner).

As PR practitioners, we need to craft our pitches with the following factors in mind:

  1. Timeliness – Don’t pitch or send a news release about an event that happened two weeks ago. New news is always better than old news (unless it’s a source pitch about an anniversary of a major event)
  2. Proximity – Don’t pitch your news to the locals in Detroit if your company is located in Arizona and has no Detroit ties.
  3. Usefulness – People love practical tips and lists.
  4. Prominence – Even though cable news shows are always looking for sources, they would still rather have the leading expert (or someone famous) on to comment as opposed to someone with an uneducated opinion on the subject.
  5. Impact – The more people your story affects, the better.
  6. Novelty – The weird and odd stories are always an easy sell.
  7. Conflict – We love to hear about turmoil, fighting and the little guy defeating the big guy.
  8. Human Interest – People are interesting.
  9. Sex Appeal – Things that are trendy sell easier.

In your opinion, which of the above are the more important factors that determine news value?