Working from a detailed communications plan we developed with the Connecticut River Valley & Shoreline Visitor's Council, we launched a program presenting two types of news releases:
 

• The Weekend Pick news releases focused on a single event in detail, Sent to editors of weekend and Sunday arts sections, these releases were often "localized" to include a local connection. When an annual reenactment of a Civil War battle brought participants from across New England, our Weekend Pick release to the Boston Globe featured the Boston groups while the releases sent to Rhode Island TV and newspapers highlighted Rhode Island groups joining in the event. This approach attracted both TV news and - midway through the event - a full page of coverage in a Rhode Island daily newspaper.
   
• The weekly Travel Tip containing brief paragraphs on key events in the upcoming weekend. We found Travel Tips were used by traffic reporters (to tell people were there would be a lot of traffic in the weekend ahead), photo editors (to find a good shot) and news editors (to assign reporters). Many daily newspapers published the tips to help readers plan their weekends.

We marketed the offer with direct mail and a modest radio buy. we also sent a media release on our new offer out on  a slow news day.

Results:  Media outside the state and across Connecticut grew to rely on these releases. Our efforts on behalf of one often overlooked  event generated three pages of coverage in a Rhode Island newspaper, TV crews from two states and a live radio broadcast.