First Steps as a Media Officer
Getting your story in the local or regional media has the potential to inform large numbers of people. Readerships of local newspapers can range from tens of thousands to much larger. So you have the potential to influence a great number of people, to challenge incorrect perceptions, inform and possibly change the way people think about poverty in England.

Our aim is to be professional in our approach to the media, so outlined below is a series of steps that can be taken to help you in this role:

So how do I begin?
First, thank you for considering using your skill to support the work of the Church Urban Fund. Welcome to the communications team.

1.Read your local newspapers, get a feel for their style and the stories they like to cover. What are the areas that feature on a regular basis and how do they cover special topics?

2.We will let you know about media training that we will be running for volunteers. We will post the information on the volunteer section of the website and we will also contact you.

3.Please sign up for grassroots – our project information sheets and also to CNews which can be accessed online. If you do not already receive these, please email communications@cuf.org.uk and we'll ensure that you do.

4.Minu Chowdhury-Westlake or one of her colleagues will contact you to talk through the areas you could best cover, from local newspapers to radio . . . and the geographical span.

5.It is good to be able to build relationships with your local journalists. If you do not know who they are, contact your local papers news desk to find out the journalist covering the area you wish to write on. If you know them, try and make contact and ask for their advice on the kind of stories they are looking for and how best to get coverage in their paper. Journalists are always looking for good ‘new’ stories or angles.

6.Put together your own database of publications, names of contacts, and all their contact details. Nearly all journalists use email and mobiles, but they also use postal addresses and faxes. It is important to know when papers have their news deadlines. Find out when these are. This will help you plan your news cycle and releases. You may have a great story, but if you miss the news deadline, you miss an opportunity to be heard. CUF communications can help you identify further outlets for your stories. Contact us.

How to start getting the stories out

• You will start to receive all our news releases. However, local media is normally only interested in local news stories. When we send you a generic release we would like you to localize it by putting in the names of towns and diocese. For example, ‘The Church Urban fund will be working with churches and groups in (name of diocese/town) to highlight the needs of homeless young people this winter.’ We will also send you versions of key releases that need to be tailored to your news outlet.

• It is very likely that a journalist will come back to you requesting information that you do not have or asking questions you do not know the answers to. It is always better to say you will get back to them rather than guessing – giving incorrect information is the quickest way of losing your credibility. It is important to get back to them quickly after checking the facts. The Church Urban Fund Communications team can be contacted at any time or emailed for information or clarifications on items.
  Call Minu on 020 7898 1654 or 07968 374847, or email minu.cw@cuf.org.uk or communications@cuf.org.uk. We suggest you keep a log of all the journalistic contacts made and also please do let us know of any news release, no matter how small it may seem.

• If you are contacted by radio or broadcast media please get in touch with Communications at the Church Urban Fund to find out what to do next.