PRESS RELEASES & ADS SHOULD BOOST WRITERS UNION MEMBERSHIP

THIS IS THE SECOND PLAN I AM PUTTING ON MY BLOG FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PEOPLE PARTICIPATING IN THE NATIONAL WRITERS UNION'S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AUG. 5-AUG. 9

WRITING FOR SUCCESS
Press releases increase membership
and enhance odds of beneficial laws

Plan presented by Martin Zabell of Chicago chapter of National Writers Union to other leaders in Chicago chapter on or around June 1, 2009

The National Writers Union (NWU) will NEVER increase its membership enough to achieve what it needs to achieve for its writers unless it INVESTS money in writing and distributing press releases and other information.

LOCAL groups all over the USA invest HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars per year in people who perform these tasks. They do so because it works. I know because I’ve seen this first-hand in 20 years as a reporter and editor, essentially distributing information from organizations smart enough to contact me and others to hundreds of thousands of people and short-changing groups too dumb to see the forest because they’re looking at the trees.

The NWU has to stop being dumb. Who knows how much money it has lost by appearing to be a defunct organization that doesn’t post basic info and news on its Web site?

Eventually, the NWU should invest hundreds of thousands annually in press relations. Currently, though, I’m proposing that it invest a tiny fraction of that – roughly $10,000 per year.

My plan makes this investment contingent on the performance of many of these duties for FREE. In other words, an expenditure of $10,000 means roughly $20,000 of voluntary services. In addition, the $10,000 would make the NWU’s current expenditures in advertisements more effective. Currently, local chapters advertise for events, but as the director of a writer’s group I brought in thousands of dollars without ever running an ad.

NOW is the time to make this first investment because on May 20 a new leadership was elected. The membership has given the new leaders a MANDATE to change.

Nowhere in the leadership’s campaign platform is there talk about a balanced budget, continuing to provide the services it has in recent years, and maintaining a small membership. Instead, the platform includes 16 goals that can be summarized as GROW. The goals include:

* “Through our concentrated efforts in both organizing and communication, establish the National Writers Union as the leading public voice for all freelancers and writers.”

* “Communicate with the outside world by issuing regular press releases, writing Op-Eds and letters to the editor, keeping our website up-to-date, and developing partnerships with groups that have similar interests.”

* “Develop organizing drives and initiatives with the goal of building our union, strengthening diversity, and widening the age range of our membership.”

My plan has the following goals:
A. Increasing visibility.
B. Activating current members.
C. Increasing membership.
D. Using financial resources more effectively.
E. Making the Web site more interactive.
F. Improving the NWU’s image and professionalism via the above goals.

Here is my plan to achieve those goals:

A. INCREASING VISIBILITY
a. Research publications that should be amenable to NWU articles.
b. Place articles in labor newspapers.
c. Place articles in writers’ magazines.
d. Place articles in other specialized publications (ex.--trade and business mags).
e. Place articles in “mainstream” publications.
f. Utilize all those famous people on our board by ghostwriting for them or seeking them to pen articles themselves.
g. Send press releases to lawmakers.
h. Establish regular relationships with all of the above.
i. Write blogs in response to articles on pertinent issues.

B. ACTIVATING CURRENT MEMBERS
a. Solicit NWU members to write on issues of expertise.
b. Solicit members to tell their stories of unfair labor practices in print.
c. Contact local and specialty publications to maximize the writers’ odds of getting the articles printed.
d. Ghostwrite if the members don’t have the time to write on their own.

C. INCREASING MEMBERSHIP
a. Solicit members who can pinpoint local or specialty publications that can reach prospective members.
b. Use the news releases as advertisements to seek new members.
c. Coordinate news releases with advertisements that seek new members.
d. Contact members, ex-members and prospective members to inform them of the NWU’s success at increasing its visibility.
e. Use the success as an argument for them to join or rejoin an active and growing organization. (Coordinate news events and press releases with phone calls.)

D. USING FINANCIAL RESOURCES MORE EFFECTIVELY
a. Keep track of who is publishing our materials.
b. Spend less time and money on reaching out to publications that have not demonstrated an interest in our activities.
c. Spend more time and money on reaching out to publications that have demonstrated an interest in our activities.
d. Figure out where we need to spend money on advertisements and where press releases can replace ads.
e. Report back on prices of ads.

E. MAKING THE WEB SITE MORE INTERACTIVE
a. Post articles on the Web site.
b. Encourage members to provide feedback on these articles.
c. Encourage members to write articles that will be posted on the site.
d. Advertise our success by listing the articles that were published in publications.

F. IMPROVING NWU’S IMAGE AND PROFESSIONALISM VIA ABOVE GOALS

Yes, it’s true that the new leadership can write lots of articles and press releases as they promised.

But, here’s what they cannot or should not do – spend time trying to figure out which publications are receptive to printing their articles and which are not. In other words, I would, in part, be acting as support services for the leadership.

For example, Larry Goldbetter writes an article on the national shield law. Before he writes it, I would contact a number of publications to gauge interest, report back on which are most interested, and improve the chances of publication by recontacting editors who had previously expressed interest.

I am 100 percent certain that many publications will print information from the NWU.

How do I know? At a UAW conference, I wrote news articles on the spur of the moment, submitted them to few newspapers, and was informed by a couple of them that my articles were printed. Labor newspapers have expressed an interest in printing more of my articles.

Frankly, a national group should have a staff to do the above tasks. However, I am offering to do this for 30 hours per week – 20 volunteer, 10 paid. If I was paid $20 an hour and did this for one year, that would add up to $10,400.

And, by the way, you could get some of that money back from the publications themselves. I know the Chicago Tribune pays guest columnists because I had clients who were paid by them.

Ex-NWU treasurer Tom Gradel informed me that the NWU paid $50,000 for its Web site – easily the worst Web site I’ve ever seen put out by a national organization.

If it paid $50,000 for its Web site, it surely can spend $10,000 for nationwide publicity.