4. What they want
Journalists want good, creative stories, with a strong hook, aimed at their target audience. Simple as that. Get that right, and you're 90% of the way there.
Hence the importance of the 5 Unbreakable Rules of Free Publicity, which aim to deliver this.
It's worth spending a few minutes asking journalists these questions:
Can I check these contact details are correct?
Make sure you are sending your news through to the right people. Ask who to send press releases to and what their contact details are. Check out these handy websites for newspapers, commercial radio stations and local BBC stations.
How do they prefer receiving news?
By email, post or fax? For most email will be the preference as it's quick and cheap. TIP - when you have a really special story you want to stand out, send it by post. It's harder to ignore a piece of paper sat in front of you than an email.
Target audience
Have a look at their website, that's normally a giveaway. But don't be scared to ask too.
Deadline
Find out what their deadlines are. This is the point at which all work must stop and the product must be finished. For weekly newspapers, this can be a few days before printing. For dailies, deadline is often a few hours before publication. For radio stations, it's probably about 5 minutes before a news bulletin, or an hour or two before a programme starts. Close to deadline, most journalists are unlikely to be working on stories from press releases. So don't leave it till the last minute, give plenty of time where you can.