Preservation Month Publicity Plan
Use these guidelines to help you create a publicity plan for the celebration of National Preservation Month and events in your community.
- Plan events for Preservation Month that will generate the most media interest. Choose occasions that are visual and involve a number of participants.
- Designate a media coordinator as the primary contact for press inquiries. Your organization benefits from having one person develop relationships with the press.
- Prepare a complete list of all radio and television stations in your community (including cable), daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, online news forums and community newsletters. Call the media and identify a reporter/editor who would be interested in Preservation Month news. Include education, real estate and architecture editors, assignment editors, feature writers, and the editorial page editor.
Medium-sized image unavailable for this photo. University of Georgia Student in front of the UGA Arch, the traditional entrance to the University’s historic North Campus. This Place Matters!
Credit: Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Prepare a media advisory about your event, identifying "who, what, when, where and why." Send it at least a week in advance. Follow up your advisory with a personal phone call to each reporter or editor.
- Prepare a news release to distribute at your event and to send to press that cannot attend. Include a headline, release date, contact name and phone number, and boilerplate description of your organization. Releases should be concise and factual, and should appear on your organization's stationery. Use the sample press release provided as a model.
- Set up an interview for your spokesperson with a local radio or television talk show. Many broadcast stations have programs that focus on community and public affairs issues; they are often taped in advance to air on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Call at least three to four weeks in advance. Ask whether there will be other guests and how long the segment will last so you can be well prepared.
- Get your activities into radio, television and cable community calendars. Call each station and ask for the public service announcement (PSA) director who is responsible for informing the public about community events. Send the PSA director 15- or 30-second scripts about Preservation Month activities. Include an interesting lead sentence with basic information about the event, location, time and phone number for more information. For accuracy, make sure you read your script aloud and time yourself with a stopwatch.
