Reading The Newspaper With A New Eye
Last night marked the beginning of a new semester at McGill - for me it means a course in Public Relations Research.
While the class was only introductory, the professor happened to mention one of his personal habits, that of reading several newspapers (in both French and English) before he left the house every morning. In his words “I’m calling clients about news items that could affect them either positively or negatively before they are even aware of them.”
This statement sparked a thought process regarding the church and our market. In my area of the city there are several free newspapers that I never bother to read, probably because they are free and the quality is not that great. What ideas for church public relations, service and evangelism could be sparked by making it a habit to read each one with an eye to:
- What type of article each one is most likely to cover. Smaller papers are more likely to cover church events than larger ones.
- Needs in the local area that the church could step in to fill.
- Networking opportunities for the leadership of the church to become involved in the community, particularly among various ethnic groups.
- People or groups that appear in the newspaper that would appreciate a congratulatory call from the Pastor. I seem to recall a church that would send a congratulatory letter with the clipping and a heading “We clipped you…”. It seems a bit cheesy now but the thought is good.
I’m sure that there are more opportunities waiting in the pages of these small newspapers and their websites.
Any more ideas - let me know in your comments.
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