Our September Skills Training featured Skip Wood and Erick Mack of Public News Service, who offered advice for many good questions that members had about press releases, reaching reporters, and working with the media.

Before the training, both editors contributed a series of training documents to our training center on press releases and story telling.

Eric Mack is a producer and editor for the Public News Service, a supporter-funded network of state-based news services filling the gap in public interest news. An NPR contributor, Eric also heads up the "Green Cars" section at Vehix.com and maintains the 'Green Means Go' blog. He has reported on environmental issues from Alaska to Pakistan to Guatemala and currently lives in the mountains of Northern New Mexico with his wife, daughter, dog and enough snow in the winter to make him think he's still in Alaska.

Read Eric's series, Key Components to Telling Your Story (and Getting the Press and Public to Listen)for the GMT training library this summer,
Part 1 of 3
Part 2: Going to The Dark Side, and Coming Back
Part 3 Form and Function (Design, Content)

Skip Wood has been with Public News Service for ten years, first as producer/reporter and currently as editor. For the last eight years, he has also been a producer for "Hear It Now," a talk show on the Prairie Public radio network, a PBS affiliate. Before all that, he was news producer for KXJB-TV, Fargo for 21 years. He has conducted dozens of workshops for non-profit organizations, which became the basis for his handbook, "Getting Coverage, an insider's guide to effective media relations."

Read Skip's training advice on message development in press releases:
1. Unbundling: Breaking it Down … A Clever Way to Boost Your Media Impact
2. Pay Attention to the Structure- A Diagram of Advice for your Press Release
3. Surviving the first “delete”… focus on the frame

Public News Service (PNS), www.publicnewsservice.org, promotes public dialogue in a rapidly changing media environment. It is a member-supported news service that advocates journalism in the public interest. Their network of state-based news services distribute high quality public interest news and information to both mainstream and alternative media on a daily basis. Support comes from non-profit organizations, foundations, individuals and businesses for social responsibility.