EDUCATIONAL PUBLICITY 987 



eligibles to enter the activities. Each great festival day or holiday is an 

 opportunity for a public demonstration of great publicity value, as are the 

 various play days, meets, tournaments. 



(/) Pictorial, handcraft and other types of exhibits. It is usually very 

 easy to secure the cooperation of the proprietor or manager of large business 

 establishments downtown in setting up in a large show window a floral 

 display, pictorial display or an exhibit of handcraft work or a display of 

 trophies, etc. Some of the firms are also very pleased to use publicity 

 material concerning the park and recreation system in their newspaper 

 advertising. Exhibits of this character at local fairs, health shows and 

 other public places and affairs are also effective means of publicity. 



(g) The press. Of all the forms of publicity, direct or indirect, the 

 most far-reaching and perhaps the most effective is to be had through the 

 daily and weekly press of the community. Few public service departments 

 have more material for news items, human interest stories, and special 

 feature stories or a possible wider range of pictures desired by newspapers 

 than does a park and recreation department. It is through the medium of 

 the press that most of the publicity is secured by park and recreation 

 departments in America today. Nearly all other avenues of publicity feed 

 directly into this and multiply their effectiveness a hundredfold. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR NEWSPAPER PUBLICITY 



Study each paper carefully to determine its policy and style. 



Play no favorites. If a story breaks in the morning, give it to the 

 afternoon paper. If it breaks late in the afternoon, give it to the morning 

 paper. Learn when your editor wants his news and get it to him before 

 that hour. 



Newspapers have collected an audience for their own purpose and con- 

 tributed material must meet the test of serving that purpose. 



In your first paragraph, give an answer to the following questions: 

 What? Why? When? How? Where? Who? 



Avoid technical terms or the special phrases of your own organization. 



Be concrete and simple. 



Prepare your copy in accordance with newspaper practice. Typewrite 

 it or write it legibly; leave plenty of space at top of sheet for head; write 

 on one side of sheet only; double or triple space all typed copy; fold copy 

 twice, do not roll it; spell correctly; get names correctly with all initials. 



Study the way newspapers rewrite your own material. 



Newspapers prefer to write their own headlines. 



True human interest stories are glittering gems in the drab setting of 

 routine news that floods newspaper offices. 



