To gain press for something that you’re doing, to increase attention and have newspapers and blogs writing stories about it, that thing, that effort of yours, needs to be framed in a press-worthy way.
What this typically means is demonstrating why it’s worth paying attention to compared to all other possible things that could be reported on, could be written about, that day.
What makes it unique? What makes it timely? What makes it unusual or remarkable?
And importantly, due to the economic models that underpin a lot of these information dissemination platforms: is this the type of story that’ll make people click? Make them stop and pay attention? Cause them to share and like and comment?
I’ve spent most of the last two years doing mostly non-press-worthy things. And it’s been wonderful: a whole lot of fun. I’m actually a lot more proud of some of the things I’ve accomplished during this un-reported-upon time than many of the things I’ve done that I’m regularly asked about when interviewed or featured somewhere.
Learning to cook isn’t press-worthy: it’s normal. It’s unremarkable in the sense that anyone can do it, any time, and a whole lot of people have done so.
Reading tons of books—unless you can frame your reading in terms of a challenge or world record—is likewise unlikely to net you any journalism inches. People read all the time, and being particularly bookish isn’t newsworthy in the way that reading an entire shelf of books at the New York Public Library is newsworthy.
After that period, I’m now back to doing press-worthy things. I’m going on tour, and that tour is unusual in that it’ll last a full-year, be relatively slow-paced, and in that I’ll be traveling/living in a vintage motorhome for the duration. I’ll also be doing house shows alongside the venue-based shows, and will no doubt have gobs of nifty adventures within that overarching framework.
This is the kind of thing that tends to get noticed because it’s strange and fun and will probably attract views and clicks and shares.
Does that make it better in some way, more valuable, than all I’ve accomplished—quietly and without fanfare—these past two years?
No.
It’s different, not better.
And this is an important distinction because a great deal of the work being done in society, including much of the most vitally important work, is done without fluff-piece appreciation, without parades, without social recognition of this kind.
We celebrate the unusual, and that’s fine. But it’s prudent, I think, that we also take a moment, individually and as a society, to say a quiet (or loud, public, celebratory) thanks for all the work that gets done behind the scenes by people whose stories aren’t unusual enough to get noticed by the sensationalism-seeking lens of communal attention, but who nonetheless create, enable, and sustain all the good things we’ve come to take for granted.
Being capable of attracting the spotlight is not an indication of quality or value; it’s an indication of being able to attract the spotlight. It could be those others things as well, but that’s not a given.
Never showing up in a newspaper or magazine is not an indication of a lack of value; it merely demonstrates the priorities of that particular medium and the revenue model that sustains it. Wonderful, valuable things are done beyond journalistic notice all the time, every minute of every day.
If you’re looking to attract attention for your work, for a cause, for an idea you think is important to share, framing it in a press-worthy way—turning it into a story, not just a concept—can be an effective approach to achieve that end.
Just keep in mind, as you gaze at the well-lit spaces of public discourse and social media popularity, that what’s happening in the shadows is just as, if not more important in most fundamental ways. The work we do in those spaces, for ourselves and for our communities, is no less vital, despite the lack of lionizing luminosity.
We needn’t go viral or be trending to grow, to make progress, or to make a difference in someone else’s life.
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