Office of Public Affairs

Media Relations

The Office of Public Affairs news bureau serves about 500 media outlets each year both by initiating news releases as well as responding to media queries. We e-mail releases on Friday mornings and post them on News Source on Monday mornings.

Here is a list of typical releases and information on how faculty and staff can work with us to seek news coverage. Also see our News Tip Sheet for types of information needed.

• Hometown news releases of student achievements. Among those automatically generated by the news bureau are enrollment, dean's list, student teachers, and graduation.
• Student honors, awards, achievements, scholarships, participation at conferences, presentations, etc. College staff, faculty and advisors are encouraged to provide basic information, including a brief description of the activity and a list of students' names, majors, class rank and hometowns.
• Advances of special events. This could include art exhibits, performances, speakers, conferences, etc. that are open to the public. Remember to include time, date, place, contact phone number and registration/cost information if application. DEADLINES: Most local media outlets that will publish special events calendar items are weekly newspapers that are published on Tuesday or Wednesday. To meet their schedules, send information to us at least two to three weeks in advance of the event. For inclusion in calendars of events for monthly publications, information is needed 10-12 weeks in advance of publication. EVENTS CALENDAR RELEASE: In August, November and January we send out calendars of events to area media. Deadlines for inclusion in these calendars are July 1, Oct. 15 and Dec. 15 respectively.
• Faculty achievements, grants, research. The News Bureau routinely distributes feature or news/feature releases in these areas. Faculty and staff may either forward the information to the News Bureau or call to set up an appointment to further discuss story possibilities.
  

What is News?

• News is highly subjective. It happens every day. Whether it makes the media or not does not determine whether an item has news value. Thus, news judgment is an art. Journalism Professor Curtiss MacDougall has provided the best description for determining whether an item is likely to see publication. Here's his description of what is generally accepted criteria of newsworthiness:
• Timeliness. Simply put, when did it happen? The old axiom applies that nothing is older than yesterday's news. A sidelight to this, however, is that timeliness also includes anniversaries. The most popular from a media perspective are 1-, 5-, 10-, 25-, and 50-year anniversaries of an event.
• Proximity. This means geography. UW-RF has the most impact in River Falls because that's where it's located. A UW-RF student from Amery who is accomplished will be news in Amery. The larger the media outlet, the less likely that this will be the case.
• Impact. This can be measured in either of two ways. The first is the prominence of the incident or person who is involved. The second is by the sheer number of persons who are affected by the event or person.
• Consequence. How does an event affect readers, viewers and listeners personally. Some questions that editors and news directors ask to determine this are:
  • What's it going to cost?
  • What's it going to save?
  • What does it allow that it didn't yesterday.
  • What does it prohibit that it allowed yesterday?
  • How will it change my life, lifestyle or quality of life, why and how much?
  • Who cares?
  • So what?
• Human Interest. The old standard is "man bites dog." But it goes beyond that and includes progress in a story. For example, it was just as much news when Dan Brandenstein took his fourth shuttle flight as his first. Obviously, the more criteria you can satisfy, the greater the chances that a story will be published.

News Release Distribution

We maintain extensive distribution lists that are oriented toward general print, broadcast and online media as well as specialized media for agriculture, women's, people of color, events. etc. We have directories of all weekly and daily newspapers, radio stations and television outlets in the United States as well as specialty media in the Twin Cities, Madison and Milwaukee metropolitan areas.

Following is a list of media that receives our regular distribution of news releases.

Campus:
This Week
Student Voice
WRFW
Television Services

Area:
Amery Free Press
Baldwin Bulletin
Balsam Lake
Central St. Croix News (Hammond)
Durand Courier-Wedge
Hastings Star Gazette
Hudson Star Observer
Frederic Inter County Leader
KARE-TV
KCUE Radio (Hastings)
KMSP-TV
KSTP-TV
Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Minnesota Public Radio
New Richmond News
Osceola Sun
Pierce County Herald (Ellsworth)
Prescott Journal
Red Wing Republican Eagle
River Falls Journal
Spring Valley/Elmwood
Stillwater Gazette
Shopper (Beldenville)
Tappen/GlenwoodCity
Wausau Daily Herald
WCCO-TV
WEAU-TV (Eau Claire)
WEVR Radio (River Falls)
WHWC (Wisconsin Public Radio-Eau Claire)
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison)
Woodville Leader
WXCE Radio (Amery)

Agriculture:
Agri-View
Country Today
Oncken Communications
WAXX Radio (Durand)
Wisconsin Agriculturist
Wisconsin Farm Bureau
Wisconsin State Farmer
WRDN Radio (Durand)

People of Color:
Ashland Daily Press
Asian American Press
Asian Media Access
Asian Pages
Cultural News
Harambee
Hispanic Link News
Hmong Radio
Insight
KFAI-FM (Minneapolis)
KMOJ Radio (Minneapolis)
Lac Courte Oreilles Times
LaPrensa (St. Paul)
La Voz (Minneapolis)
Menominee Tribal News
Milwaukee Star
Milwaukee Times
Milwaukee Community News
Minneapolis American Indian Center
Minneapolis Spokesman
News From Indian Country
Satban Video
Spanish Journal
St. Paul American Indian Center
St. Paul Recorder
Summit University Free Press
Visiones de la Raza
WNOV Radio (Milwaukee)
National Media

The University News Bureau is a member of the ProfNet (Professors Network) service of PR Newswire. ProfNet is dedicated to linking reporters quickly and conveniently with expert sources. Free to reporters, ProfNet is supported by member institutions. Established in 1992 by public information officers representing 130 North American colleges and universities, ProfNet today links reporters to 800 colleges and universities in North America, Europe and Africa.
Also among its members:
* 1,500 corporations
* 700 non-profit organizations and hospitals
* 100 government agencies, national laboratories, scientific associations and think tanks
* 1,200 PR agencies

For more information about Profnet, you can visit its Web site at http://profnet2.prnewswire.com/