Sidebars

Editors use the term "sidebar" to refer to a shorter article that appears alongside the main article and offers greater detail about one aspect of the main piece. Good reporters learn to think while they are writing an article: "Would this information stand out better in a sidebar?" Stop and think about how you look at spreads in a newspaper or magazine: often the information in a sidebar is so interesting that it convinces you to go back and read the main article. In other words, sidebars are not afterthoughts—they can and should be the best information in the arti­cle.

Suppose you are planning a new product release. You have enough material to provide three, four, or five pages of information. What would you break out into a sidebar?

• A list of special applications of the product.

• A history of advancements and developments that preceded this product.

• Comments from researchers, testers, and trial users of the product.

• You are announcing the centennial of your organization—one hun­dred years of serving the community. Sidebars to the main article might include:

• A capsule history, with major events and the dates they oc­curred.

• Profiles of the major leaders of the organization in the first century.

• Statements of congratulation from other groups in the com­munity.

• Statistical information about the number of individuals who have been involved in the organization over the first century.

Your organization has announced that it will support legislation to protect the environment from air and water pollution. Think of these sidebars:

• A list of other organizations supporting the same legislation.

• Major pollution events in the history of the area that led to sup­port for the current legislation.

• A breakdown of costs for cleanups from past pollution events.

Sidebars are a mindset. Effective public relations practitioners who know from experience how complicated a multi-page news release can be (and how reluctant readers are to wade through long articles) think instinctively: "What information can I put into a sidebar in order to make the story more attractive to the editor and to my target publics?"

Brochures and Direct Mail

Now we look at the fact sheet and its fancier cousin, the brochure, in the context of direct mail as the delivery system. In the past decade, direct mail—sometimes called direct advertising—has risen to become the third largest marketing medium, right behind newspapers and television. Its phenomenal growth can be attributed to the fact that direct mail targets specific publics and reaches them at the time and in the place where they make most of their decisions—in the home. That makes direct mail an extremely attractive message channel for public re­lations programs.

Advertising, promotions, posters, displays, and special events are used to alert the public to ideas and programs. Brochures and fact sheets are designed to go into greater detail about the issue. They provide infor­mation that can be saved, stored, referred to, and acted upon.

The mailing list is one of the most valuable tools a PR department can use. The mass media deliver thousands of unwanted members of sub-publics that do not interest your organization. But mailing lists target much more precisely the audience you want to reach: home owners, apartment dwellers, boating enthusiasts, hunters, coin collectors, reg­istered voters, users of credit cards, opera patrons, senior citizens, sup­porters of gun control, opponents of gun control, conservationists, and left-handed bowlers.

Some mailing lists cost thousands of dollars, especially those that identify high-income families with special characteristics. Other lists can be bought more cheaply from magazines aimed at hobbyists or re­gional audiences. Many organizations, such as non-competing arts and cultural organizations, routinely exchange mailing lists at no cost to ei­ther organization. Commercial direct-mail houses, for a handsome fee, will take care of everything from obtaining the appropriate mailing lists to stuffing and mailing the envelopes for you.

Of course, any organization should carefully develop its own mail­ing lists by making sure that every person participating in an event sponsored by the organization, every citizen who writes the organization for information, every contributor, every customer, every personal friend of management, every elected official is put in a card file or on a computer list to receive mailings that fall in his or her interest areas.

Now let's look at formats that will deliver your messages effectively and discuss how they are produced.