GET FREE ADS IN YOUR LOCAL PAPER

Image Gallery For a ""u-pick"" cherry story, you'll want a photo that shows how to pick 'em... with a good shot of an orachard worker in cherry -packed tree.

by RICHARD VARENCHIK

Do you have a product or service you need to sell?

The editor of your local newspaper wants desperately to give you free advertising. In fact, he or she would be overjoyed to print information about the crafts you make . . . the food you sell at your homestead ... the business you operate ... or the service you perform.

There are, however, a few tricks that you'll have to know ... in order to make that editor realize how much he wants to "promote" your home enterprise. And, since I've been in the newspaper game for eight years, I can tell you all about these gimmicks.

First, you must understand the "Golden Rule" of most newspaper owners: "Spend not! " Practically speaking, this translates: "Why hire two reporters when one can be made to do the work of two ... or three?" And this philosophy holds true for all but the largest,. most prestigious papers in the country.

As a result of this "rule", the editors of almost all small and medium-sized papers-the kind that probably serve your community--find themselves chronically understaffed and continually overworked ... and their problems can help you get your story into print. The paper needs news week after week to fill its columns, so you'll delight your local editor if you come in and hand him or her a free story that he or she can pop right into one of those empty spaces.

Your story won't be "hard news" (such as a bank robbery or an auto accident). Rather, it will be what journalists call a "feature". And editors of small papers are always on the lookout for good features: a man who makes wooden toys ... a rockhound who fashions jewelry from the stones he collects ... a catfish farm ... a candlemaker ... a man who welds metal scraps into "art" objects ... a man who makes furniture from scrap lumber or wooden burls ... a "u-pick" cherry orchard, and so on.

I know that each of those subjects would make a good feature, because I've written stories on all of them. Try writing one about yourself, and - if it appeals to the paper's editor you'll get free advertising.

A SIMPLE KEY

The key to a good feature is the lead ... those first few lines that set the tone of the story. A harried editor will quickly hurl your literary gem Into the trash if the first paragraph is dull. On the other hand, a good lead will probably get an otherwise routine story into the paper (or at least bring you some suggestions on how to improve It).

So what makes a good lead? Well, for an example, let's consider the one I wrote on the "u-pick" cherry orchard. I could have pounded out something like:

"Newhall residents can save money by picking their own cherries at Rex's 'U-Pick' Cherry Orchard." But my boss would have thrown the story right back at me, because, one, It's dull, and two, It might offend local market owners who pay the paper for their advertising.

The lead I finally wrote for the cherry story went like this:

"It's that time of year, and people are picking on Rex again. Children pick on him. Adults pick on him. Busloads of senior citizens drive all the way to Rex's orchard just to pick on him. But Rex doesn't mind. In fact, he loves It, because ...

It didn't win me a Pulitzer Prize, but It did make my editor chuckle. (You know you've accomplished something when your story prods any emotion out of a hardened newspaper editor.)