Writer's Block

Sign of the times

Is the economy cold in here, or is it just me?

So far this week I've got not one but four inquiries from friends, acquaintances and strangers wondering if The Maui News could write a story about their small businesses. Times are tough, and a little free publicity couldn't hurt, right?

We do sometimes write features profiling interesting local businesses, but we're not a PR firm. Still, it never hurts to try, so I put together a list of dos and don'ts for anybody hoping to pitch a story.

>DO put it in writing. Jot down a few paragraphs about who you are, what you do, and how to contact you if we want to follow up. If you write it down, we can read your press release when we have time and maybe pass it around to an interested reporter. If you call, we may be busy and will be thinking about how we can get you off the phone.

>DO keep it short. Four to five paragraphs, max. If we want to know more, we will call you.

>DO have a hook. Are you doing something with green energy? Does your factory employ trained monkeys? Is your new product being launched next week? Any angle that makes your story unique, interesting and, better yet, timely, will be more likely to get our attention.

>DON'T say, "Business is bad, and I don't really have an advertising budget, so I was hoping you could write a free story promoting my business." Yes, someone really said that to me. Major turnoff.

>DON'T treat us like we work for you. Demanding we write a story, insisting you control where we run it, getting angry and insulting, even saying you want to write the story yourself (!) will get your call transferred to the Advertising department, where you can buy space and say whatever you want.

>DO be sure you really want the attention. One friend of a friend thought his new commercial property would make a great story. Just one problem: he'd renovated the whole place without any permits, and opened shop with no business license or even a certificate of occupancy. A news article isn't like a free advertisement; the reporter is free to write about the whole story, warts and all.

>Finally, DON'T get your hopes up. The paper gets a steady stream of proposals for stories and requests for coverage, but we only have the resources and print space for a few.