A Guide To Good Theatre Publicity In The Press

by Nick Carroll
"Pulse" Arts Editor, Messenger Newspapers
21 January 1998

 

One of the best ways to get free publicity for your theatre production is through the arts pages of newspapers.

Adelaide’s metropolitan daily, The Advertiser, carries an arts section each day, and will reach whoever buys the
paper on a regular basis. So will The Sunday Mail. The street magazines, Rip It Up, dB and Adelaide GT, are
free but rely on people picking up a copy each week. Meanwhile, Adelaide’s suburban weekly newspaper
chain, The Messenger, is delivered to everyone’s front door free of charge.

Targeting all newspapers that service your market (don’t forget regional papers such as the Mount Barker
Courier in the Adelaide Hills district) is your theatre company’s best way to ensure readers know your show is
on.

The trick is to ensure that what you send to each newspaper suits the requirements of the relevant editor. Don’t
be afraid to ring each paper to find out who is in charge of the arts section and ask to speak to that person.
Briefly explain what show you are promoting and when it will be on the stage, and ask what you can do to get a
story published before the season starts.

No journalist will guarantee your story gets a run, and if your best efforts produce barely a cracker, don’t be
discouraged. Newspapers can be fickle animals. What you send in might not suit the paper’s requirements. The
arts editor may have too many other stories vying for the same small space. And when the information you gave
could fill a whole page, your story may be reduced to a couple of sentences or nothing at all. Be grateful for
small mercies.

As a rule, arts editors do the most for those who make the loudest noise. So if they sound non-committal, don’t
give up. Push them all the more, explaining why your group’s production is important for their readers to know
about. And even if you get a commitment on a feature article about the show, talk about other possibilities such
as interviews with the actors, dancers or musicians involved, picture-stories, light-hearted gossip plugging your
show, or ticket giveaways for the opening night or preview performance (word of mouth is still among the best
means of advertising!). Always send the arts editor a personal opening night invitation, and one for the critic
(offer them two tickets each).

Remember, a determined but polite publicist has helped to get an ambitious amateur production as much
coverage as a professional one!

But be aware of a journalist’s limitations. Due to their commitments, many cannot give a lot of time to arts
interviews or production stories. So it will be up to a publicist to write the story for them.

The challenge is to present your press release in a way that ensures that your efforts are not wasted. The best
way to approach it is to imagine you are writing the finished article as you would read it in the paper, giving
interesting quotes from the show’s director, writer or leading performer.

Journalists hate a teaser – the press release or fax that gives a few tantalising bits of information about a show
but doesn’t say what it is, where and when it's on, or who is involved. Most arts writers want to help out, so it is
even more irritating not to hear from the publicist until after the paper’s deadline has passed, or to find that the
press release doesn’t include the publicist’s day-time phone number for urgent enquiries.

Messenger Newspapers issue a complete information guide for publicists, explaining how to write press
releases, how to tailor stories to the various suburban papers to ensure the widest possible coverage, and even
a guide for taking production photographs suitable for publication. To obtain a copy, phone the editor of
Messenger’s "Pulse" section, Nick Carroll, on (08) 8347 5772. 

Further information: Visit the Messenger Newspaper's Guide to Good Publicity