Ethnic Newspapers, Magazines & Online Outlets
- Newspaper companies are transforming into information companies, combining their traditional print formats with online and sometimes even radio and television counterparts. Many ethnic daily and community newspapers now have websites that publish the news of the day along with web exclusives, videos, blogs, podcasts and live chats.
- Most ethnic media outlets publish weekly or even monthly, which gives them more flexibility with their deadlines than broadcast reporters. However, such a long lead time requires advance planning to time a story about safe sleep promotion with a specific event. Know reporters’ deadlines and work within their requirements.
- Magazines often go to print weeks or months before they appear on newsstands. For successful outreach, remember the deadlines of these publications. Publications other than news weeklies are often written from 1 to 3 months in advance of the magazine’s publishing date, and thus are planned 6 to 9 months in advance.
- Many ethnic newspapers and other outlets have online versions that can reach a broader audience about safe sleep promotion.
- While it is always best to provide an ethnic media outlet with a spokesperson that is able to communicate in the paper’s preferred language, most reporters are bilingual, making it easier to leverage an English-speaking spokesperson whose comments can be translated prior to printing or posting the story.
- Many ethnic media outlets have a social media presence. Work with the reporter to find ways to use their social networking platforms and microblogging sites like Facebook and Twitter to tell more of the story about safe sleep promotion through live chats, graphics and conversations with the outlet’s audience.
Consider: Does your story require some in-depth discussion of a topic? Do you have the supporting resources to provide to the reporter that will help him or her write a better story? Will you be able to provide interviews and data on deadline?
