Media exposure can help your event attendance by building awareness among the public, but the only way to guarantee that your event appears in the media is to advertise. Here are things you can do, including advertising, to maximize your attendance.

o Ask "Who is my audience?"
Is your audience internal (on campus) or external (public)? Since no event will appeal to the entire metro Atlanta population, decide who is truly likely to attend your event, then advertise to that target audience. If your audience is mainly internal, working with Emory Report and The Emory Wheel should meet your needs. Recommended external advertising outlets are listed below.

o Calendar listings to external media
Post events on the university web calendar. University Communications sends weekly and monthly calendars to the external media. These listings and the Emory Report calendar are drawn completely from the web calendar. Your event cannot be included if it is not on the web calendar. The site is http://events.cc.emory.edu/ or go to "find events" on the home page.

o News releases
The Office of University Communications will distribute a news release about an event if it is likely to result in a news story about that event. If a story is not likely, a calendar listing is sufficient to be included in the major calendars such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), Creative Loafing, Community Review and DeKalb Neighbor.

o Emory Report
- The Emory Report calendar focuses on the internal Emory community. Events are included on a space available basis.

- First Person columns. Managing Editor Mike Terrazas always is looking for well-written essays for the First Person feature in each issue. This presents a good opportunity to submit an essay that relates to your upcoming event. Approximately 900-1,000 words is the length of a First Person essay.

- If you are interested in Emory Report doing a preview story of your event or covering the actual event for later reporting, you can pitch your idea to Mike Terrazas at mterraz@emory.edu or 7-0645.

Build campus support

Work with your colleagues to attract students. Consider which other courses or programs have students and/or faculty that are a natural audience for your event, then:

- See if faculty will consider requiring attendance or offering extra credit for attendance.

- Make use of the Learnlink conferences whose readers are part of your target audience.

- Better yet, enlist the services of enthusiastic students in your classes to get the word out to campus.

o PSAs
University Communications rarely sends public service announcements because few media outlets use them any longer. Many of the non-commercial stations now charge for announcements, called SBAs (sponsored broadcast announcements--see advertising), and will throw in a few PSAs in addition.

o Advertising
Here are media outlets recommended by University Communications:
-WABE, Atlanta’s National Public Radio affiliate. This has been the consistently most successful way of reaching an educated audience in relatively close proximity to Emory. While they are a non-profit station, they can sell sponsored broadcast announcements. Most are 15 seconds, but they have some 30 second availability. Prices range anywhere from $100 evening spots to more than $200 on "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," but rep Harriet Hoskyns-Abrahall has worked with many Emory departments with small ad budgets to make a workable schedule. 678-686-0321

-Community Review, bi-weekly newspaper for Decatur and the area surrounding Emory. Rebecca Risse 404-371-8878

-The Emory Wheel, the student-run newspaper comes out on Tuesdays and Fridays during the academic year. 404-727-6178.

-Atlanta Jewish Times, a weekly newspaper for Atlanta’s Jewish community. Their research shows their readership to be affluent and well-educated. Jane Goodman 404-252-1600 ext. 208

-The Atlanta Journal-Constitution DeKalb section, is the Thursday section of the paper for readers in DeKalb County. The costs are dramatically cheaper than advertising in the main paper, and for most events the majority of audience is from the immediate Emory area. There also are Midtown/Buckhead and central Atlanta sections. To buy ads in the DeKalb section, call 770-263-3900 and ask for the rep handling display ads for the Decatur/Briarcliff area (Pam Bridges as of 7/00). To buy ads in the main paper if you haven’t done so before, call 404-526-5179.

Other advertising outlets to consider:
-Creative Loafing, alternative news and entertainment weekly newspaper. Carrie Siaggas 404-688-5623

-Peach State Public Radio, National Public Radio network for the rest of Georgia. It is not heard in the Atlanta metro area, but covers the rest of the state. 404-685-2690

-Southern Voice, weekly newspaper for the gay and lesbian community. 404-876-1819

-Atlanta Voice, weekly newspaper for the African-American community. 404-524-6426

-Atlanta Tribune, bi-weekly business newspaper for the African-American community. 770-587-0501

-Atlanta Intown (formerly 30306, 30307, etc.), monthly newspaper for intown communities, including Virginia Highland, Candler Park/Lake Claire, Midtown, Morningside, etc. Linda Howell 404-581-9503

If you have questions, call the Office of University Communications at 404-727-6216.