Real news --don't cry wolf.

Sometimes it is tough to face facts. Your firm's newly remodeled board room is not headline news to the general public.

Other examples of what is not stop-the-presses headline news include: your new associate; your firm's foursome golf score at the Lions Club fundraiser, and; your nifty new marque sign.

Such happenings are interesting to you and to your firm. Put them in the firm newsletter. Some of them might even be interesting to others in the legal community [a new associate is hired] or your local community paper [the Lions Club outing]. Let the bar association know about the new associate and send the weekly shopper paper a photo of your foursome [with you all holding that three-foot-long fundraising check].

But these happenings are not "news" to the public and you should not try to fluff them up to make them appear to be news. You will fail.

If you cry wolf and try to convince TV cameras to mobilize for such occasions you will lose credibility, annoy the media, jeopardize your relationship with them and the reputation you are working hard to build.

I have thrown away many hundreds of news releases based solely on the sender and my past bad experience with that sender. After having wasting precious time reading weekly, boring, lengthy, self-promotional announcements of "events" so excruciatingly mundane they likely bored even the participants, I just gave up on that source for good. If such a firm were to announce they were handing out $100 bills on the sidewalk no one from the media would show up because no one in the media reads their releases anymore. Or takes their calls.

If you are caught crying wolf the media will treat you like a pompous windbag at a cocktail party--avoid you, ignore you and likely ridicule you from outside of earshot.

My newsroom knew of such serial offenders. Firms and publicists who clogged our in-boxes and fax machines with drivel became the butt of office jokes. A joking reporter might burst into the lunch room in feigned breathlessness waving a faxed release from such a firm and exclaim, "Did you hear?? Tweedle & Dumm has added an additional part-time receptionist to its satellite office in Small City!!" and the reporters at the lunch table would burst into laughter.

Don't become that firm.

Does that mean law firms can't earn media coverage? Absolutely not. There are an amazing array of possibilities for getting earned media for your firm.

But attorneys must be realistic about what is "news" [and in what target media a particular event or announcement is newsworthy].

If you want coverage in the mass media you must only promote your most interesting events in the freshest and most engaging fashion. Find the "news hook" and create an engaging story that will cause an editor to read the second paragraph, or a channel surfing soccer mom to watch the rest of the spot.

Otherwise you could end up being the subject of newsroom jokes rather than front page coverage.