NewsWireBC was established in 2003 and is owned and operated by the Lynn Communications Group.
NewsWireBC
Suite 1805, 719 Princess St.
New Westminster, BC, Canada V3M 6T9
Telephone 604-258-9084
info@newswirebc.ca
The past 10 or more years have seen a dramatic shift in news media in BC and across Canada and the United States. Newspapers have been shrinking or closing and radio and TV stations have been dealing with drastically reduced advertising revenues. The money is all going to social media, where the eyeballs have increased exponentially at the expense of traditional media. See a more exhaustive dissertation of this formula here.
Fact is, news releases wishing to reach those eyeballs can’t rely on what worked in the past. At one time in BC if your news release got picked up by The Sun, CKNW and Global TV you’d scored a home run. At one time the Sun sold 250,000 papers a day. Today they struggle to reach 30,000.
To reach that number of viewers today your release must reach the traditional media, but also local community newspapers where they still exist, and also their websites. All media now have very vigorous web news pages, most professionally designed and maintained. Many newspapers have morphed into web sites, and we can tell that they are viable because they attract advertising significant enough to pay the bills and keep them afloat.
We have adapted. News releases can no longer depend on the dailies and a few key radio and TV stations. They must add a significant list of websites – some newly created, some fallbacks from shrinking daily or community press and other traditional media. Consumers of news are still very much out there, and are more widely dispersed, but to reach them takes a bit more work.
NewsWireBC has now done that work. We have re-organized our news packs to include many more websites, along with the traditional media. Your news releases will now go to more newsdesks because that’s where your audience is. We will continue to scan the news territory to ensure we cover all important media, and will update our listings as we go, in order to give your release its best chance of reaching your targets.
Reporters and editors are looking for news. Our news distribution system does not handle ‘vanity’ releases, technical releases that are required by the stock markets, or fluff pieces. Editors understand this and treat all of our releases as hard news.
We have all the right contact points. We spend a lot of time making sure we do, and we keep our lists up to date.
We have set up our distribution lists based on the advice of editors and news directors who will deal with your news. They’ve told us the best way to get your news release into their hands for maximum impact. We’re fast. We operate out of BC. You can decide when your release goes, and when.
We have segmented our lists to enable you to pick and choose which radio, television and newspaper editors will get your news. Unlike the corporate newswire services, you don’t have to pay to have your release sent to a massive master list, most of which you don't want.
We know which newsrooms are shared by several media outlets. We have removed radio stations which do not have news broadcasts, and weekly newspapers which are essentially shoppers which do not carry news. You’re left with genuine media outlets which can use your news.
You can also provide us with the names of select media, reporters or editors who are known to you, and we will include them in your distribution program.
Our service is flexible and cost-effective.
Your communications program is more effective if your key stakeholders get copies of your news release as they are distributed to the news media. We can add those names to our distribution list, so these important people are included and involved in your program. Get in touch to allow us to provide a quote based on your specific needs.
We can send your release or brief to BC MLAs and to Federal Members of Parliament segmented by political party. Get in touch to allow us to provide a quote based on your specific needs.
Select the market groups which make sense for your release. Note that our distribution program automatically eliminates duplicates.
We can also develop a custom news pack for your organization, including shareholder distribution.
News Desks | |
Major Media Pack Greater Vancouver Dailies, radio and TV news, community press, news web sites, Chinese & Indo-Canadian media in Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Whistler. |
38 |
BC Best Media Major Media pack above, plus dailies, major radio and TV and key community press and news websites in major population centres across BC outside of Greater Vancouver. |
65 |
Interior Dailies, key radio and TV and key community press and news websites in southern BC (south of Trans-Canada Highway). |
36 |
The North Dailies, key radio and TV and key community press and news websites in northern BC (north of Trans-Canada Highway). |
32 |
The Island Dailies, key radio and TV and key community press and news websites on Vancouver Island. |
21 |
Legislative press Palmer, Zussman, Sun, Black press |
4 |
NOTE: Distribution list are always subject to change.
Phone or email us at least 4 hours before you intend to send your release.
John Lynn – 604-258-9084 (cell) or John@lynngroup.ca
Email your release as a Microsoft Word attachment to John@newswirebc.ca. You can also send us your release in the body of an email.
We send your release in our standard visual format. We cannot use a PDF and we do not transmit logos, photographs or other artwork.
You need to discuss with us what media you want to send it to, and the release date and time. Provide us with a list of any additional reporters/editors who should receive the release.
We charge a set-up fee of $100 plus $2.00 per news point (editor’s computer, news release drop-off point, reporter, columnist) by email. We charge an additional $1.00 per page per news point for multiple-page releases and for notification copies to stakeholders (colleagues, board members, etc).
We send your release in our standard visual format, and cannot include your graphics, logos or photographs without a special arrangement.
Call for additional information regarding the range of news packs available for your use, or for a cost estimate prior to sending the release.
We will bill you via email and our invoices are due upon receipt. You can pay by cheque or preferably by direct interac deposit to John@LynnGroup.ca. Make cheques payable to John Lynn Communications.
Model your releases after stories you see in your local newspapers or hear on your radio news stations.
Write a clear headline making one key central point. Your release is in a fight for attention with hundreds of other releases each day. Get the editor’s attention early.
Your lead sentence should contain the most important details. Remember, an entire radio news broadcast can run from two to five minutes total. Your item might only get 10 seconds, so only the key points of your news release are going to be included.
Use the inverted pyramid style in writing news: important news at the top, details in declining importance to the end.
Remember the 5 Ws of news: Who, what, where, when, why. Be clear, be factual, and be accurate.
Use direct quotes from your prime newsmaker.
Keep your sentences simple and your paragraphs short, often one sentence. Paragraphs should be shaped like a shoebox, not a like file cabinet.
Make sure you identify your main newsmakers by full name and title. OXFAM President Shirley Jones, or Jim Beam, President of Carpenters Union Local 114.
Keep your news release short. One page is usually enough. Reporters will re-write the release, or may call you, your newsmaker or others for additional comment. Do not expect your news release to be re-printed word for word.
Refer editors and reporters to other related information on your website or elsewhere. Avoid the temptation to provide it as an attachment or an appendix to your release. All journalists now work on computers so they can quickly connect with your site for more information.
At the bottom of the release, provide contact information including office, cellular and home phone numbers, and an email address. Writers and editors work around the clock, so making yourself available at their convenience will help you get news coverage.
Save yourself and your support staff some grief. Use a professional news release service such as NewsWireBC to send your releases. They’ll get where they need to go quicker and more successfully without consuming unnecessary staff time. Your support staff should be helping you field reporter phone calls and emails.
Sending a notice of an event two weeks ahead of time is no guarantee you will get coverage; it actually may mean your release will get forgotten. One to three days’ notice is plenty, and a reminder 12 hours prior is always a good idea.
Don’t send garbage releases. If there is no real news value in the release, don’t send it. Just because it sounds important to you does not mean others will see it the same way. Test it; ask yourself, does anyone really care about this information, other than the people in your office? Ask other disinterested people -- your husband, your brother, your neighbour, a friendly journalist – if it sounds like news.
Writing news for the internet
Your new release isn’t necessarily ready to post to your organization’s web site. I recommend re-writing it in a more direct, conversational style, with a photo of your main organization newsmaker.
You will want to insert key words into the release which will attract the attention of searchers using Google and other search engines. You will also want to insert live links – those three or four words in blue and underlined – which will lead curious readers to further information.
Be sure to date any release which you post on your web site. The internet is forever, and readers need to know whether the story they’re reading is an hour old or a year old.
Recent dramatic changes which have across north America and throughout the world has caused us to re-think and re-engineer NewsWireBC, our news release delivery service.
Up to a few decades ago we all relied on our print media to keep us abreast of what was happening in our neighbourhood, our city, and around the world. Every daily had its own printing press in the basement of its large office building, scores of reporters writing copy, the papers were filled with ads and flyers, and trucks delivered hundreds of thousands of newspapers every day to pick-up points in the community for local carriers to deliver to homes.
But the times began to catch up with print. First it was radio with news every 15 minutes throughout the day. Then television news came up with dramatic colour videos, and then social media and cell phones brought you the news wherever you were in your busy day.
Now newspapers are dying. You see the evidence every day. The Montreal Gazette has scrapped its opinion pages. The New York Times has disbanded its sports department. Many of Canada’s dailies including the Sun and Province no longer print on Mondays. Dozens of community newspapers in Alberta, Ontario and here in BC have shut their doors. The venerable Vancouver Courier disappeared.
Most dailies have had to sell their presses and buildings and many have told their few dwindling news employees to work from home. Newspapers are shrinking to one or two sections. The news hold which used to require dozens of reporters is now filled with a mere handful. Classifieds are now a few columns, and advertising is deserting print. Between 2017 and 2022 Canada’s Postmedia group shed more than 1,200 full-time employees, and they accumulated $228 million in debt last year alone. Two decades ago the Sun and Province printed more than 250,000 newspapers a day. Today they’re lucky to print 30,000.
The answer is, many places. If you’re only interested in the top news of the day, radio. If you want neighbourhood news, the few remaining community newspapers and local news websites. For analysis and in-depth reporting, national papers like Globe & Mail, National Post, New York Times, Washington Post, but mostly online with those services or podcasts which fit your biases. TV news is also holding its own, with Global News in BC running news programs on two channels in the morning, noon, evening and late-night. CBC, CTV and other stations have similar news schedules.
But all news organizations are more and more relying on their websites for news. Most failed community papers in BC have resurrected themselves under their same branding as web sites, and new ones have emerged. All dailies and TV networks have robust web sites, which give you that around-the-clock access to the latest news that you crave. In our most recent verification program of our NewsWireBC listings we found many formerly vigorous community newspapers operating as web sites. Analysts tell us that these trends will all likely continue, with more papers folding and becoming web-based, even the exalted New York Times.
To help our customers continue to reach their intended audiences, we have drastically re-aligned our media packages. We still offer the highly rated Greater Vancouver Pack as well as the Major BC Pack but now both packs will contain a mix of print and web newspoints. The balance of our news packs are regional in nature, and will all combine both newspaper and web sites. In order to provide you with the widest possible coverage of your intended audiences. Non-English media are included in the above two re-named news packs. A detailed listing of the areas covered by the news packs is available on this web site.