Media Relations Kit

The tools in this section are designed to help you disseminate news and information to the media to reach your target audiences. Some products are more useful for television and radio media, while others are effective for generating news stories with the print and Internet media. Below are three tip sheets, followed by samples and templates of some recommended communication tools.

• Tips: Working with the media
  Detailed tips on different ways to reach out to media outlets.
• Tips: Using the Web to promote your event
  Ideas for promoting your campaign through the Internet.
• Tips: Writing letters to the editor
  Tips on how to present a strong position with a purpose on STD prevention.
• Example: An op-ed column
  An opportunity to get your opinion out to thought-leaders and policy makers. Focus on a specific issue, highlight contradictions, emphasize local importance, and present a specific action to be taken. They normally run on the page opposite the newspaper's editorial page. The Op-ed example shown here is a great example of a powerful op-ed on an important STD topic published in 2008 in The Washington Post.

Media Kit

A media kit is a package of materials given to media contacts to interest them in and inform them about your issues and assist them in providing coverage in their television, print, or radio media. These kits can include materials such as news releases with contact information, fact sheets, bios and contact information for spokespersons, flyers and brochures, copies of articles on your topic, and background information on your organization.

Below are suggested items for your media kit, with links to templates, instructions, or examples of each of these tools.

• Press Release
  Tells your news story in no more than 2-3 pages. Includes contact information and provides media with the most important details of your news story first, followed by quotes from key spokespersons. Click here for a GYT press release which has a statement from CDC’s Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP).
  
• Media Advisory
  Basic information about or an invitation to an event (fundraiser, press conference, public event, etc.) containing only the what, where, and when of the event.
• Radio Public Service Announcement Script
  Sixty-second spoken script that can be used with national and local radio affiliates.

• • Listen to an example of a 60 second radio PSA developed to target native communities during STD Awareness Month.

• Fact Sheet
  A document that provides statistical background and information on your issue.
• Photo
  Provides a visual representation of your story and can be used by print media. Include a clear, plain language caption on your photo describing the action in the picture.