Advocacy Toolkit

Media and Publicity

The Editorial Board Meeting

Editorial board meetings are used to meet with the newspaper editors and issue-specific reporters to give them in-depth information about the issue and encourage editorial support. You should request an Editorial Board meeting if your issue is topical, your organization is pushing for a particular action, or new information is available that could persuade the paper to take or change its position.

How To Get a Meeting

• Write a request letter to the Editor of the Editorial board and follow up with a phone call. In the request letter you should explain why you think the editors would be interested in meeting and why the issue is important. In the follow-up phone call it is good to once again request a meeting, reiterate one or two points on why the issue is important and describe why the editor should accept a meeting. Tie in recent news articles or other hooks.
• Select a small number of appropriate representatives to attend the meeting. The best representatives to a meeting will reflect different aspects of the issue and various experiences.
• Prepare three to four major points that should be conveyed and develop talking points for everyone. Review possible questions that may come up and rehearse the answers.
• Know the latest news reporting (bring recent national newspaper clips or other editorials along) and know the opposition's position and how to refute it.
• Know any previous positions taken on your issue by the paper.
• At the end of the meeting ask if the editorial board is planning to write an editorial or a story on the issue. If the answer is yes, ask when they are planning for it to run and if you can be of further informational assistance. If the answer is no, ask why and try to address any concerns that have been raised. You can also try again at a later date. Newspapers sometimes reverse their position.