Написание материалов связей с общественностью и организация мероприятий
UNIT XI
TIPS AND BACKGROUND MATERIALS: PITCH LETTERS
To do their job, reporters and editors need a continual supply of news tips and background materials. Your role in public relations is to come up with ideas and sell them. On another level, you are responsible for providing background information so that reporters understand a subject well enough to write intelligently about it.
Publicists write a lot of pitch letters, and most of them are not particularly creative. The vast majority, in fact, are rather dull and uninspired. Editors and reporters are busy people who receive stacks of mail every day, so it is important to write letters that will get their attention.
First, a pitch letter is at most one or two single-spaced pages. Many publicists draw the line at one page. Second, a pitch letter should have an enticing lead. Third, a pitch letter should get to the point as soon possible.
A pitch letter should have the following six elements:
Enough facts to support a full story;
An angle of interest to the readers of that specific publication;
The possibility of alternative angles;
An offer to supply or help secure all needed statistics, quotes, interviews with credible sources, arrangements for photos, and so on;
An indication of authority or credibility;
An offer to call the editor soon to get a decision.
Inherent in this advice is doing your homework. To write a good pitch letter you also have to be familiar with the medium, the subjects it features, and how they are covered.
Vocabulary:
background materials – вспомогательный материал
creative - творческий
draw the line - ограничить
dull - скучный
enticing - заманчивый
inherent in smth. - неотъемлемый
lead - начало
at most - максимум, не больше
particularly - особенно
pitch letter - рекламно-информационное письмо
publicist - человек, работающий в сфере паблик рилейшнз
single-spaced - напечатанный через один интервал
stacks of mail - горы почты
statistics - цифры, статистические данные
tip - совет
uninspired - банальный
vast majority - подавляющее большинство
Exercises
1) Find the words in the text which would describe or mean the following:
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not showing any imagination; a helpful piece of advice; to set a limit on what you are willing to do; very pleasant or interesting so that you feel strongly attracted; not interesting or exciting.
2) Make sentences as in the example:
Reporters and editors / a continuous supply of news tips
Reporters and editors should be provided with a continuous supply of news tips.
Many publicists / one page.
It's important to write letters / attention.
Your role / ideas.
Publicists / a lot of pitch letters.
Most of them / creative.
3) Match the words which are close in their meaning:
| credible | integral |
| enticing | incessant |
| inherent | imaginative |
| creative | attractive |
| continual | reliable |
4) Match the words which are opposite in their meaning:
| specific | unaware |
| creative | inconceivable |
| familiar | incomplete |
| credible | general |
| full | uninspired |
5) Insert prepositions (at; with; in). Write down your own sentences with these expressions:
to draw the line ___ smth., to be inherent ___ smth., to be familiar ___ smth., to come up ___ smth., ___ fact, ___ most.
6) Can you explain the following:
To do their job, reporters and editors need a continuous supply of news tips and background materials.
7) Speak on one of the six elements that a pitch letter should have and that you find the most important. When expressing your opinion, use the following:
In my opinion
From my point of view
Personally, I think that
It would seem to me that
As I see it
Frankly, I think
I reckon
8) Here is a sample of a pitch letter. Translate it into Russian. Try to make it as enticing in Russian as it is in English:
September 17, 1990
Ms. Sue Cross
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
230 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, II, 60601
Dear Ms. Cross:
It may have taken the president to give Kennebunkport, a place on the map but a 10-year-old boy is literally putting the small hamlet of Parrott, VA, "on the map".
Young Chris Muncy from Mishawaka wrote a letter to Rand McNally last year asking that Parrott, home of his grandparents and great-grandmother, be added to the company's top-selling Rand McNally Road Atlas. Muncy often traveled to Parrott (population 800) to visit his grandparents and found planning the route difficult without the small town on the map.
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Now, thanks to Chris Muncy's letter, on October 2, Parrott, VA, takes its place on the map in the 1991 Rand McNally Road Atlas. It marks the 67th edition of the nation's best-selling annual paperback.
The new Rand McNally Road Atlas, updated annually, includes thousands of changes from the 1990 edition. These include additions of towns, highways, state parks, rest areas and other points of interest that are vital to the traveler.
The attached news release provides more information on the 1991 Road Atlas from Dr. Michael Dobson, the man who "puts towns on the map" for Rand McNally and leads the company's year-round effort to keep American motorists from getting lost.
I'll call you soon to determine your interest in pursuing this story. Should you require additional information, please contact me or Jim Heininger at 312-266-4550. We would be happy to arrange an interview for you with Dr. Dobson or Chris Muncy to further discuss making it "on the map".
Sincerely
Jeff Beckman
Account Executive
12) Prepare the topic Pitch letters for retelling.
UNIT XII
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