The Table of Elements: What Makes the News?
The Table of Elements: What Makes the News?

By Alicia Korney, Public Relations Associate

Experience in writing for newspapers can teach a reporter quickly that there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to what is news and what is not. There are, however, some basic things to keep in mind when you’re trying to decide if something might be of interest to the public and, accordingly, to an editor or reporter.

It isn’t unusual for reporters to receive a handful of story ideas throughout the course of the workday. The first things most reporters weigh when hearing any pitch are the timeliness of the story and whether it is something of interest to the average news reader or viewer. “New” is obviously a big part of news, and recent events generally take more precedence than something that happened several weeks or months ago. Additionally, how a story might affect a person is key, because if there’s no effect, there might not be any news.

Other news aspects to keep in mind include the following:

Prominence: Community leaders and people in the public eye usually have high news value.

Proximity: Stories about events and situations that occur in a paper’s home community typically are considered more newsworthy than events that take place counties away.

Conflict: For better or worse, war, politics and business scandals, among other examples of conflict and controversy, are the staples of most news.

Novelty: A helpful litmus test for determining fresh news items from old new items is the man-bites-dog versus dog-bites-man approach. Of course, the Society doesn’t recommend that any CPA take this idea too seriously to make the local newscast.

Human interest: A story may be weak on some of the news elements already mentioned, but could be of interest anyway. A CPA who donates his time to a local nonprofit, or one who celebrates the end of tax season with an annual skydive, is just the sort of human-interest piece that news outlets sometimes look for. Remember, if people are talking about it, it could be news. These are the kinds of stories that New York State Society of CPAs members might periodically want to take a step back from and see if they are occurring within their own chapters.

Pitches to the media should include at least one of these elements. What often helps convince an editor that a story should be done is its currency. More value is given to stories that relate to issues or topics already in the public spotlight. Things like how tax changes could create new revenues for a town looking to balance its budget, or a new rule that might benefit a struggling small business, can put a local human face on issues that ordinarily may fail to capture the public’s attention.

It always helps to keep in touch with reporters, editors and producers, though that doesn’t mean a news release should be sent out every time your chapter does something. To some degree, all reporters rely on sources to let them know about stories that could otherwise fly under their radar. Make sure you have a legitimate news idea whenever you contact the media, and they will begin to recognize you as a valuable news source.

That’s where the NYSSCPA’s Public Relations Department comes into the picture. The department works with chapters to produce more media interviews. The Public Relations team will contact the media in the coming months about possible interviews on taxes.

If a member has a specialty in taxes or another area and would like to be considered for an interview, please send your resume with details about your news story proposal to the author at akorney@nysscpa.org or 212-719-8364.