No. 294 - GOOD PRESS...CAN PAY BIG DIVIDENDS!!

No. 294
Jim Davidson...NEWSPAPER COLUMN
GOOD PRESS...Can Pay Big Dividends!!

Back on January 20, 1925 the Wall Street Journal carried the following quotation: “A newspaper is a private enterprise, owing nothing to the public, which grants it no franchise. It is therefore affected with no public interest. It is emphatically the property of its owner, who is selling a manufactured product at his own risk.” In reality the newspaper can be your friend or it can be your enemy depending on what a news reporter catches you doing at the moment. As I’ve said many times in this column, where would we be in this country without a free press? When the light comes on, the cockroaches always scurry for cover.
Several months ago I got a letter from my friend Richard Tuttell, who is Managing Editor of the Lenoir News-Topic in Lenoir, North Carolina. In January 1998, after several phone calls he made the decision to run my column and has run it ever since. His decision has been good for both of us as I have received many positive letters from his subscribers. The purpose of his letter was to ask permission to quote something from one of my columns in a new book he was writing. Because we had visited many times and I knew he was a fine man I was happy to grant his request.
To make a long story short his book has now been published and the title is “GOOD PRESS...An insider’s guide to publicizing business and community news.” You would suspect as managing editor of a daily newspaper that he would be a good writer but I can tell you that he is better than that. His book is fantastic and as I read it I was impressed with his clear writing style and the manner in which it is organized. As the title says, he is an ‘insider’ and because of his 20 plus years experience, he really knows the newspaper business.
Here is the benefit and purpose of my sharing this with you. There are literally millions of people in this country who are either journalism teachers or students, publicity chairs for service clubs, churches, corporations and other organizations, as well as individuals who would like to know more about getting favorable business or community related articles published in the newspaper. Unfortunately, many of these individuals lack the in-depth knowledge to maximize the use of this valuable resource.
If you fit into any of these categories or positions, the author Richard Tuttell actually puts you behind the editor’s desk and shares information that will improve your chances of having an article printed or broadcast. He actually provides basic instructions on how to format and submit news items for free publication. Richard also points out where most submissions fail to come up to publication standards and answers the only two questions newspaper editors are ever asked “Why didn’t you put that in the paper?” and “Why did you put that in the paper?”
Personally, I think it would be a great training tool for new employees of any newspaper. There is more practical and useful information here than most college courses provide on the subject. Please understand, as I’ve said before when presenting a book for your consideration, I don’t earn a thing from doing this except the satisfaction of helping someone who is worthy and most importantly providing a great resource for anyone who would like to have more of their business and community submissions make it into print....FREE.
This book is published by iUniverse.com. Order at www.barnesnoble.com, www.amazon.com or by calling 1-800-843.2665. As someone has said, “there is nothing in the world that books can’t help us to do better.” (Jim Davidson is a motivational speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)