Media outlets are businesses just like any other. As a result, the media must provide stories that are important, detailed and interesting in order to maintain customers. For this reason, an important but potentially dull public policy story must take an arduous journey to get some form of media coverage. At a recent panel discussion at the Community Media Workshop’s annual Making Media Connections conference, Cornelia Grumman of the Chicago Tribune and David Schaper of radio station WBEZ explained the best ways to get generally unexciting yet important stories into the media.

As a reporter for the Tribune, Cornelia Grumman understands the inherent problems with a newspaper. Familiarization with the quirks and shortcomings of the print media may very well be the first step to getting an article published. The more you know about your disadvantages, the more you can do to combat them. Read the rest of this entry »