Grand Opening, Grander Coverage

In this case, it was my job to pitch a story to the media that was the size of a molehill. The end result was a mountain’s worth of media attention. As a parks and recreation agency, we were constantly building playgrounds, and this particular playground in Highland Park was actually less dynamic than others we manage. Either way, our city manager wanted to pitch the story and get some coverage. After assessing the details, I quickly shifted the focus from the playground to the partnership between the city and our local schools. After crafting the press release, I followed up with an email blast and several phone calls using my media contact list. To entice the media, I worked with our main contact at Highland Park Elementary School to have several schoolchildren on-site for the inaugural play session, which ended up being excellent b-roll and photo opportunities for the news media. As a result, we had all four TV stations, The Roanoke Times and the major talk radio station in attendance for our ribbon-cutting event. Here