Note: The following is excerpted from Appendix C of Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork & Time Poverty In America (The Official Handbook for Take Back Your Time Day) to be published in July, 2003.

By all accounts, Eric Brown, who once starred as the dim-witted son (People Magazine's description of his role) in the TV sit-com, Mama's Family, was an excellent actor. It takes a lot of smarts to appear dim-witted on TV, but he'd have been hard pressed to match his current skills as Communications Director for the Center for a New American Dream. In the past few years, Eric has placed (oops! that should be successfully pitched) hundreds of stories about the Center and its remarkable work in thousands of newspapers. I see one in my local paper every couple of months. In the course of that work, he's learned a lot about how to do it right. -- John de Graaf, Editor

You're in luck. If you have decided to organize Take Back Your Time Day in your community, you have a ready-made story that a variety of news media are likely to be interested in. If you play your cards right, you have a terrific chance of getting some press.

There are whole books about grassroots media relations, so this chapter is by no means a definitive text on the subject. Nevertheless, I hope that it can be a useful tool for people with very little experience in reaching the media, and may even provide an entertaining diversion for seasoned, crusty, battle-scarred communications professionals.

On Bended Knee

I love reporters. This isn't spin, I swear. Reporters are smart, curious, interesting people who could make a lot more money doing almost anything else, but the vast majority of them do what they do because they love their jobs. Remember this: They're not your enemy. They tend to be very nice, much like yourself (I'm assuming you're nice). If you cut them, they usually bleed. If you tickle them, most will laugh.

Next to the message itself (and you've got a great one), the relationship you establish with reporters is the single most important factor that will determine whether you will get coverage for this event. And since much of your time will be spent talking to reporters, it behooves you to get to know and like them. I mean, what's not to like about someone who calls you up, respectfully asks your opinion, and then prints it in a newspaper for your mother to read and brag to her friends about? Oh, and I almost forgot: reporters are also incredibly overworked, and this, as it turns out, is very lucky for you (more on this later).

Exploding the Myths

In my travels, I occasionally hear the cynical musings of people (some of whom are communications people) quite frankly laboring under a pile of misconceptions about the news media. Here are a few key misconceptions and why they're wrong:

Myth #1: Reporters are Lazy

Mallarky. Reporters are anything but lazy. In fact, they're extremely hard working and are invariably time starved. If you think most reporters are going to just reprint your press release, you are sadly mistaken. I suppose it happens from time to time because reporters are under the gun, but this is no strategy for success. Reporters are very busy, so the more help you can provide coming up with pithy quotes, people with interesting experiences for them to interview, and reliable statistics, the easier it will be for them to do a good story.

More important to you, though, is that overworked, overstressed reporters will arch their eyebrows (the sound of an arching eyebrow over the phone is a beautiful thing) and lean in hopefully when you call them and say that you're working on a campaign to help Americans have more free time (for more on this, see Myth #3).

Myth #2: You Can Place a Story

Never happens. Nobody calls a reporter and places a story. I don't know where people get this nutty idea. You pitch, you cajole, you wheedle, whine and beg, but you don't place. The fact is that getting media, even for a great idea with a great message like Take Back Your Time Day, takes work. Don't go gallivanting around town bragging to your friends about how you're going to place a story in the New York Times, or the Ypsilanti Times, for that matter. Still, getting a great story in the paper can also be as straightforward as calling the right reporter and letting them know about this very cool movement. Just don't say you placed the story. It makes my teeth itch.

Myth #3: Reporters Don't Have a Point of View

Ha! Reporters try to be objective, and if a story is controversial they'll try to get both sides, but every reporter has a point of view. Most environmental reporters, for example, have some kind of interest in the environment. Most TV reporters like television. Restaurant writers? They tend to like good food. It doesn't take long to figure out which reporters are likely to write about Take Back Your Time Day. Start reading the paper, watching the news, listening to local radio. Do your homework. Find out who covers issues related to work and family life and get a sense of the reporter's point of view. These are people you want to get to know, and they're the ones most likely to cover your Take Back Your Time Day efforts. And don't forget columnists. They're actually encouraged to have a point of view, and churning out a column day after day isn't easy. They need help. Get to know your local columnists and give a call to the ones most likely to be sympathetic to your work on Take Back Your Time Day.

It's the Message, Stupid

If you don't have a compelling message, you will fail -- and that's a promise. I spent one very eventful year as a Capitol Hill press secretary, and the highlight of that exciting time was the thirty minutes Paul Begala spent addressing a group of press secretaries on the topic of message. (Paul Begala and his partner James Carville were Bill Clinton's Mutt and Jeff media team in the 1992 elections, and now cohost CNN's Crossfire.) I took copious notes that day (in fact, I keep the original yellow tablet from that day in 1997 in my office), and I've taken Mr. Begala's lesson on message to heart. Over the years I've adapted the lesson here and there, and borrowing largely from the master himself, this is what I now try to teach others. With apologies to Paul, here goes.

A message is:

1. A story. John de Graaf is working his butt off so you don't have to is a story about John's crusade to help Americans have more free time to improve their quality of life, protect the environment, and build a better society. Eric Brown left his pressure cooker job as a congressional press secretary to work for the Center for a New American Dream because he loves the group's mission, and by the way, they work a 32-hour week is a story about a guy who took a risk that paid off. These are stories about real people doing things differently that are compelling and that immediately draw you in.

2. Brief. This always freaks people out, but a good message is easy to digest. Watch the evening news tonight and see how long the sound-bite of the President (or more likely the bystander describing the 50-car pile-up) is. If it's more than eight seconds, give me a call and I'll send you a dollar. Resist the temptation to blather on. We all want to cram everything plus the kitchen sink into our press releases and all our materials, but it will be much, much better if you can come up with a nice, clean, brief message. It's hard to do, but it's worth it.

3. Unique. Dog bites man seldom makes the newspaper, but man bites dog gets the front page above the fold. Here's a rundown of stories in today's issue of the Washington Post that's sitting on my desk: A Monument to Eco-Mindedness -- Takoma Park Silo to Fuel Corn-Burning Stoves, about the efforts of some enterprising citizens to take an unusual step to combat global warming; Women Rise in Corporations, about a report that details how women are finally beginning to crack the glass ceiling; and Egon Kafka, The Man Who Couldn't Stop Taking Buses, about a distant relative of Franz Kafka who has a collection of 112 buses. Why did these stories get written? Because they're interesting. They draw you in and make you want to know more. They're unique, or in some way (as in the case of the women-in-corporations story) show the beginning of some kind of cultural shift or new trend. Take Back Your Time is unique. At a time when people are working more than ever, the movement toward working less is unique. What else might be unique about your event? Easy question -- the people who are bucking the trend, whose story you will tell to reporters eager to find something unique to write about. (This is fun, isn't it?)

4. Relevant. If your message isn't relevant to the reporter's readers or to the producer's viewers, you're toast. Fortunately, Take Back Your Time Day is even relevant to your family pet (see Chapter 7), so you're in luck. Just make sure that you don't gloss over the relevance of your campaign. The really compelling thing, for example, is not that John de Graaf is working his butt off, but that it may help each and every one of us have more free time to do the things that really matter. That's personally relevant to me, and it makes me want to learn more.

5. Emotional and Evocative. Which is a catchier message, John de Graaf has embarked upon a campaign to promote free time or John de Graaf is working his butt off so you don't have to? How about, Eric Brown decided to cut back on work and found a job that lets him do that versus Eric Brown left his pressure cooker job as a congressional press secretary to work for the Center for a New American Dream because he loves the group's mission, and by the way, they work a 32-hour week? The message with emotion, passion, and some colorful imagery is way better than a dry recitation of the facts. Paint a picture with words. Can't you see John working his butt off? I know I can. Don't you picture the emotional pressure cooker of working on the Hill and the tremendous relief of suddenly working a 32-hour week? Me, too.

6. Repetitive. This chapter has two themes. First, you need to establish and cultivate relationships with reporters, and I have hammered that home in one way or another in no less than eight separate places so far. Second, message is everything, and counting conservatively, there are at least ten places where I've stressed the need for understanding and communicating a strong message. This is a damn repetitive chapter, but I like to think that when you're done reading it, you'll have a sense of what I think your approach to getting press should be. I may not convince everyone who reads it, but there will be little doubt about my position. Your message to reporters should be equally clear, and the way you do that is by repeating yourself. You don't have to use the same words all the time, but in one way or another you need to say we need more free time a million different times in as many interesting ways as you can.

7. Forward Thinking. All good messages and good campaigns are about the future. Whether it's about protecting the environment, creating healthy and happy communities, building the framework for a just society, or just about any important idea I can think of, the implicit and often explicit message is that we're doing what we can to make the future a better place for our kids and grandkids. John de Graaf is working his butt off so you don't have to is about the future. It's about how much time our children will get to spend with their parents; it's about our ability to engage civically; it's about our capacity to protect the environment -- it's about what the future could look like. It's a hopeful, positive, powerful message. That's why you're reading this book, and that's why I'm writing this chapter.

Now Go Get Media

When I was twelve years old, I lived in a residential neighborhood in Queens, New York, and one day on the way home from the neighborhood park, I came across a chicken. It was alive and looked healthy, and I've always been a real softie for animals, so I took it home, fed it some Quaker Oats, and put it in the garage until I could figure out what to do with it. Then I picked up the phone (I swear, I swear, I swear, this is the absolute honest truth), and I called the New York Daily News. Even then, I knew that Boy Finds Chicken in Queens was newsworthy. And sure enough, the paper sent out a photographer, my friends and I were in the paper the next day, and my PR career was born.

If you are holding a Take Back Your Time Day event, you are sitting on the equivalent of Boy Finds Chicken in Queens, and your next step is to pick up the phone. Having read and absorbed whatever wisdom I've been able to impart, you've learned to love reporters, you're getting a sense of how they think and what they need, and you've begun to understand how to frame your message. Now make a list of reporters you'd like to talk to and pick up the phone.

Write a press release (don't tell anyone, but I use pretty much the same format every time) so you can send the reporters something they can look at, and give them a call. Call in advance of the event so they can feature the people in your community who are working hard on Take Back Your Time Day so we don't have to (your release isn't about John de Graaf, it's about someone in your community -- local newspapers always want a local hook if possible), let them know about the teach-in, the speakers, and the other stuff, but make sure they understand the real story -- the brief, unique, relevant, emotional and evocative, forward-thinking story, that makes the event worth participating in.

That's all there is to it, really. It's a lot of work, but you have a really terrific chance of getting your message out if you try hard enough. Be persistent but respectful. Don't get discouraged if people say no. A lot of them will. But my feeling is that more of them will be interested in telling the Take Back Your Time Day story because it's a great story that readers, viewers, and listeners will be very interested to learn about.

If you have any questions, drop me an e-mail at eric@newdream.org and I'll be happy to help. Have fun. Now get out there and work your butt off so I don't have to.