Is Old News Still News?

Did you know that a government-certified edible plastic (methyl cellulose) was a fast-food shake thickener? Is that news to you? In fact, the story is decades old, but it does illustrate an important point: old news may still be newsworthy to people who haven't heard it yet. (By the way, the historically leading customer for that shake thickener converted years ago to a "Real" milk-based shake recipe).

The time peg.

Newsworthiness requires the existence of an event with a peg in time; many unmined veins of news ore simply never had that peg pounded into them. If you upgraded or improved a product three months ago but haven't yet told anybody about it, that's the stuff that news is made of.

Benefit positioning.

In some cases, we can synthesize a peg in time. For an ongoing product, the odds are there's some implicit benefit to its users that nobody ever got around to disclosing; again, if nobody's heard about it, it's news to them. That's one good reason to make sure benefit positioning news is an ongoing part of your message stream.

Users.

This may be a good time to review a simple definition of the difference between features and benefits: A product owns the features, a user owns the benefits. A benefit positioning release tells the story from a vendor's perspective, essentially announcing the benefit much as we might announce a product. The alternative is to let the user tell about the benefits in a user application story release (which also brings a strong dose of credibility, since it is from a voice other than your own). There's news value in each new user's new discovery of things to like about a product.

Dealer successes.

The same applies to the people who sell to your end-user customers - your dealers and resellers may have success stories to share. It could be the answer to a problem sale, a dependable income producer, a catalyst to other sales or some other trade benefit - again, when told as a dealer success story release, each new disclosure has potential as news.

Mundane to mondo.

And there's news that's so routine to you, it may not even cross your mind as interesting to reporters. Some examples: a new technical briefing bulletin, a new point-of-purchase display item (counter card, shelf-talker, whatever), a new user group, a support activity (user group meeting), faster deliveries, an end to backorder status, whatever.

Quotes.

There's even news in your mind - or on it. A well-crafted statement of the company position on a relevant issue or theme can present itself as a White Paper (which is newsworthy as a product) or as a market positioning (quotes) release. The more insightful or outrageous a statement you can make - your corporate personality will determine which is appropriate - the better the chance of its newsworthiness appealing to the press.

Here's one quote that probably won't make the news, from the wry mind of Judie Winston: "I believe for every drop of rain that falls, there's more to come."