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This information can be read 'hand-in-hand' with information on how to make your NBA branch more effective...
Some of these are just the bare basics of an idea. Some will require quite a bit of research on your part, either for local interest or to make sure you understand the whole issue. Don't be afraid to ask for more information before you put a story together - ask anyone who you think might be able to help you!
The harder type of story to suggest is actually the one that is more likely to get used - choose something that is topical to your area to base your story on. If orchardists are pulling out shelterbelts, do a story on the need for early spring pollen sources. If there have been stories about the flu, put together a story about propolis, or about honey and lemon drinks!
These are only just enough to get you started! Have a brainstorming session with your branch to come up with others. Compare them, evaluate them, make notes about the stuff you would want to include. Accentuate the postive! Come up with some interesting, informative, attitude re-inforcing stories about bees, beekeeping and the products of the hive! Remember, they basically LIKE us out there - and that's a long way down the road to make it easier to get more good publicity!
Getting good press coverage for your branch's activities is always a struggle. This set of helpful hints has been written to try to make it a little easier for you to get what you want from publicity.
The first rule to remember is that news media are there to report news - don't believe that they are there to provide you with a public service, or to perform public relations services, for your branch or for beekeeping in general.
Most of these ideas are intended for newspapers but with some variations will help you with dealing with radio reporters as well.
Get to know your reporter personally. If you can actually like each other, you're well on the way to having a good working relationship. Contact the paper and ask to speak to the reporter who is generally assigned to cover rural stories (that is, if you haven't already picked up the name by reading the paper regularly!). Give the reporter an address and telephone number where you can be contacted. Say that you are able to speak on behalf of the local branch of the National Beekeepers Association (if the branch specifically has told you you can!) and would be happy to act as a beekeeping 'contact' for any stories that might arise.
Though you can get stories placed by ringing up a reporter, you'll improve your 'hit' rate, as well as getting a more accurate story, if you provide it to the newspaper in written form. Don't feel you have to be a journalist yourself to do this - your well-presented notes will help your cause.
Your news story is competing for space, and your competitors are reporters, the wire services and other people just like yourself. You have your best chance for success if you incorporate into your news release the features described here.
Timeliness - Ask your reporter friend about the various deadlines for the newspaper. You'll find there are several types - a general deadline, perhaps a front page deadline and maybe a specialty features deadline. If the paper has a special rural page that appears only once a week, for instance, it might have a deadline several days earlier than the 'final' deadline for the really important news.
Format - A news release can be improved by including all the important elements that make work easier for the reporter:
If at all possible, neatly type the release, with double or triple-spacing and wide margins. This gives plenty of room for the reporter/editor to write comments.
Type the word 'More' at the bottom of each page except the last. Clearly indicate the end of the release with '# # #' or simply type 'END OF PRESS RELEASE' below the last line of your writings.
Content. When preparing a news release you should answer as many as possible, if not all, of the six questions of news writing:
Who?
Where?
What?
How?
When?
Why?
The release should answer these questions clearly and quickly. It is not necessary, however, to answer them all in the first paragraph. Certainly don't cover them all in an off-putting fact-saturated first sentence!
Lead sentence/paragraph. The first sentence and paragraph are usually the hardest to write well. The lead must grab the reader's attention. It must have news value. Try to find one or two aspects of your story that will really appeal to people. Again, don't try to cram too many details (and especially dates) into the first part of your story.
After the lead. Write the rest of your story on a sequence based on importance. That is, put the most important items near the top of the story and save the less significant detail for last. Condense the facts into short sentences and paragraphs. And keep the release short. It should very rarely need to be longer than two double-spaced pages.
Clear and simple language. Use simple, non-technical words. Avoid acronyms and abbreviations. If you must use them, spell out what they mean the first time you use them in the text. Keep sentences short, with an average length of 20 words or less. Avoid complicated sentence construction - keep breaking them down until they are several, stand-alone ideas.
Always use the active voice. Put the people at the front of the sentence doing things, not at the end having things done to them! Say 'Beekeepers are placing extra boxes on the beehives for the boomer crop!', not 'Beehives are being supered up by beekeepers'. It shows people doing things, people in charge of issues, and not issues being done by people.
Use objective language to present the facts. Give only specific facts, and leave the reader to make the judgments. Don't say 'it has been a disasterous season'. Say 'Beekeepers have extracted less honey than average'. And think of the consequences of what you say! Remember that a lot of people, including bank managers, read newspapers. Think about what they might do after reading your story.
People. Someone should appear in your release, be named, and talk. Quotes make a story sound human, and quotation marks catch the reader's eye. Lead off with a quote, or sprinkle them throughout the story, but make sure the reader knows who is talking.
Photographs. Before you send the news release away try to imagine if there are any eye-catching photographs that might be useful to illustrate the main point of the story. Don't try to actually take them - the newspaper will send out a 'real' photographer (who will probably ignore your suggestions anyway!). By planning for the possibility of photographs, however, you can decide beforehand who and what might be needed. Whatever you do, though, don't put your reporter and photographer at risk of a beesting! You'll certainly lose any goodwill you've worked to develop!
These notes were prepared to help you in preparing for dealing with the media. Much of the material was produced originally by the American Honey Board. I have 'translated' it into NZ conditions (and spelling!).
Media relations can be as simple as a casual conversation between you and a reporter or as involved as an appearance on a radio or television talk show. It can be as inexpensive as a thank-you note or as costly as a video news release. Media relations encompasses a variety of techniques, which are used to communicate specific messages to the consumer via the media.
As a media contact person, you have the responsibility of passing information about the beekeeping and honey industry through the media and eventually to the public.
Every media contact is an opportunity to influence what is said about the beekeeping/honey industry.
Whenever you conduct a media interview, whether with a newspaper, radio or television reporter, you should be prepared:
Every community has newspapers, local television and radio stations which are sources for publicity.
After you have established which media outlets are available to you, you will need to contact the right person at each publication or station. At a large newspaper, this could be the business, news, food or farm editor. At a smaller newspaper, it may be the editor. At a television station, it will be the assignment editor, producer or person responsible for 'booking' guests.
There are many opportunities to meet with media representatives:
You have the right to:
Terms that define the ground rules for an interview have very specific meanings. Anyone who grants an interview with a reporter should understand the subtle differences in these words and the condition under which an interview is.
These product notes were prepared by Nick Wallingford, drawing on a variety of sources. The best reference work for learning about honey is Honey - A Comprehensive Survey, edited by Eva Crane (Heinemann, London, 1979). These notes are written to serve as 'background' information for journalists or other people who wish to convey useful, accurate and interesting information about honey.
Honey for thousands of years was the world's most widely used sweetener. While colonies of bees were initially 'hunted' and destroyed in the process of 'robbing' the stored honey, the 'farming' of bee colonies eventually followed.
Honey occupied an important niche in ancient cultures. The Incas offered honey as a sacrifice to the sun. Honey receives numerous mentions in the Bible and the Koran. The Greeks believed it to be a sacred substance. Eros is supposed to have tipped his arrows with honey, believing it would spark off sweet, true love. The Hindus believed it was a miracle food which made people strong, rich, happy and wise. Napoleon's royal crest was a honey bee - a symbol of industrious activity. Today's honeymoon comes from the ancient Teutonic custom for newlyweds to live on honey from their wedding day until the next full moon. This was said to ensure a large and happy family.
Honey is a supersaturated sugar solution of dextrose sugar in the presence of levulose sugar and water and a few other things. Supersaturated means that there is more dextrose in solution than the water can actually hold. When granulation takes place, the dextrose sugar is unable to stay in solution (liquid form) at a given temperature. Dextrose forms crystals which are surrounded by the liquid (water and levulose) portions of the honey. Very often so many crystals are formed that the whole volume of honey becomes a solid mass. Honey is naturally crystal free and would not granulate if dextrose crystals were not introduced. As soon as a dextrose crystal is introduced it acts as a 'seed' and more crystal formation takes place until the honey granulates.
Honey consists of a number of sugars, but the monosaccharides (the 'invert sugars', the simple sugars) dextrose and levulose predominate, generally in near equal proportions (about 40% of the total each). Most samples contain a small amount of sucrose (normally less than 2%). Honey is generally laevorotatory - that means if you pass a beam of light through it, the light will be bent to the left. Honeydew, with its more complicated sugars, bends light to the right - dextrorotatory.
There are also other complicated forms of sugar in very small amounts, and traces of many minerals, enzymes and some vitamins. Some pollen grains are also present, and these may help in the identification of the honey source -microscopic analysis of a sample can give a good quantitative measure to ensure consistent supply of a given select source or blend. Finally, there are the volatile substances which give the honey its characteristic aroma and flavour. Moisture content is generally just over 17%, giving it a specific gravity of about 1.424.
The colour of honey varies according to the plant from which it comes and, to a lesser degree, the soil type. The colour can vary from the clearest of 'water white', through to amber and, in some cases, as dark as golden syrup or even molasses. The colour comes primarily from the minerals it contains, with darker honeys generally having a higher mineral content. Though often described in words ('water white', 'light amber', 'dark amber') beekeepers use the Pfund scale to provide an exact measure of the colour of honey. This allows the colour of a sample of honey to be objectively described and specified for supply.
For the most part, the lighter coloured honeys have a milder flavour (clover, blackberry and nodding thistle). It isn't a hard and fast rule, however - rata, tawari and pohutukawa all have flavours that would fool someone who purchased them on light colour alone!
The darker honeys generally have the stronger flavours - rewarewa, manuka and buttercup, for instance, have distinctive, 'deeper' flavours that appeal to other consumers.
Some honeys (such as kamahi, honeydew, thyme and ling heather) have very strong, sometimes pervasive flavours, sought after by some but almost 'too much' for other honey tasters!
Honeydew, which appears to be just another dark, strong-flavoured honey, is not 'honey' is the strictest sense. Rather than being produced from nectar, it is actually tree sap that has been modified by insects on or in a plant. In New Zealand, honeydew is almost always from the South Island's beech forest trees.
Honey is generally sold to the public in one of three forms -comb, liquid or creamed. Comb honey is honey just as the bees produced it, contained in the natural beeswax hexagonal cells. Liquid honey has been extracted from the combs by spinning in a centrifuge.
Almost all honeys will eventually granulate. There are a few exceptions, including tupelo honey of Van Morrison fame! The time to granulate and the resulting texture depends primarily on the dextrose to levulose ratio. Some honeys (such as rata and pohutakawa) granulate quickly with a small, fine crystal. Others (rewarewa and manuka, for instance) take much longer to granulate naturally, and when they do, the honey can be quite hard and gritty, because of the larger sugar crystals. To keep honey liquid for long periods of time, it can be heated. Though extreme heat treatments can affect colour and flavour, it does allow the honey to remain liquid for longer.
Rather than allowing the honey to granulate naturally, however, New Zealand beekeepers pioneered the 'creaming' of honey. Contrary to popular misconception, nothing is added to the honey in the process. It is simply a controlled granulation. A quantity of finely granulated honey is added to the bulk liquid honey. The honey is kept cool and stirred for several days until it is almost 'set' when it is then packed into retail containers.
Just as all honeys will eventually granulate, any granulated or creamed honey can be returned to the liquid ('runny honey') state. Gently heating granulated honey will break down the crystal structures, leaving the honey in a liquid form. The heat used should not be extreme or prolonged. Honey can be softened (though not back to fully liquid) simply by placing the container in a warm place. To completely liquify honey, it should be warmed gently in either a double boiler or water bath arrangement. Heated too much or for too long, honey can lose delicate flavouring compounds, darken in colour and even take on a 'burnt' flavour.
Big word, eh? It just means that honey takes on and holds moisture readily. This is due, for the most part, to the levulose in honey - levulose is one of the most moisture-retentive of any of the carbohydrates.
Most honey will be at equilibrium, not absorbing or giving off moisture, at a relative humidity of about 58%.
Few foods are as stable as honey. It requires no refrigeration and is used extensively in preserving fruits and jams. When stored in conditions that exclude moisture, honey can last virtually forever. Honey from the Egyptian pyramids has been found after 5,000 years to be almost unchanged in character and properties (though I admit I would personally think twice before eating it. The Egyptians were also known to use honey as an embalming ingredient!).
Honey is hygroscopic, though - it can attract moisture to itself, depending on the temperature and the relative humidity of storage. If you leave honey in an open container for a week or so, a thin liquid layer will form on the surface. Pulling moisture from the air, the honey will create this high moisture surface layer that can begin to ferment. A similar process, in fact, was the beginning of one of the first alcoholic drinks -mead!
Mead was consumed in great quantities before the advent of grape wine and refined sugar led to a proliferation of other yeast-derived and distilled alcoholic beverages. Honey is still used for its distinctive flavouring abilities in some liqueurs, notably Drambuie and Irish Mist, providing a link to the ancient days of fermentation.
Probably 90% of honey is consumed as 'table honey', most often as a spread on bread, biscuits or crackers or used directly to sweeten drinks, fruits or cereals.
Honey can, however, be used in a wide variety of other food applications. It can be spread on other items, mixed into foods or used as an ingredient in a marinade. Honey goes with nearly all foods, from use in a salad dressing, with vegetables or as a meat glaze or sweetener for baked or casserole dishes.
Being sweeter than sucrose, less honey is needed to obtain the same amount of sweetening. Its moisture content, however, makes it more of a challenge for most cooks to handle and use.
Using a measure that has already been used for other wet ingredients is a useful tip - the honey will not stick so much to the surface. Keeping a quantity of 'runny honey' for cooking makes it more convenient for measuring. A plastic squeeze container makes it less messy to dispense.
Honey is often used in baking. The hygroscopic properties mean that baked goods do not dry out. Breads, biscuits and cakes stay moist and fresh for considerably longer. Because it is about 80% carbohydrates, however, it may be wise to reduce the temperature slightly so that the goods do not brown too much. This ease of browning, however, is one of the things that makes is such a useful glaze for meats.
Honey mixes well as a sweetener for hot drinks. It imparts a pleasant flavour to both tea and coffee. It tastes particularly nice with hot milk and chocolate drinks.
Honey has a long history and association as a medicinal substance. Though folk lore remedies involving honey have existed for thousands of years, honey is experiencing a resurgence of awareness with traditional medical authorities.
It has been described as '...non-irritating, non-toxic, self sterile, bactericidal, nutritive, cheap, easily obtained, easily applied, and above all, effective' as a surgical dressing.
Honey is well known for its curative properties in external application to wounds, cuts and abrasions - the high sugar content and acidity are bactericidal. A small percentage of hydrogen peroxide is also present in honey which kills many bacteria. There is a wealth of anecdotal evidence of honey used on burns, speeding the healing process and resulting in less scarring.
Dr Molan (Waikato University) has found that some honeys, particularly New Zealand's manuka honey, exhibit antibiotic properties far beyond that explained by the sugar content, acidity or hydrogen peroxide. Clinical trials are currently being conducted with manuka honey as a proposed cure for some forms of stomach ulcers.
Honey is one of the oldest natural cosmetics. Its moisture retaining properties and its natural antiseptic and healing nature meant that it has formed the basis for many cosmetic and beauty items for thousands of years. Applied to the face, it acts as a moisturiser and while gently removing the top layer of dead cells. It forms the ideal base for all sorts of face packs, creams and conditioners. Honey is an ingredient in an increasing number of costly commercially made cosmetics.
New Zealand produces between 5,000 and 10,000 tonnes of honey per year. The wide variation is caused by seasonal changes, primarily - beekeepers are very weather dependent.
As there are about 300,000 beehives in New Zealand, this gives an average production of about 30 kg of honey per hive.
About 5,000 tonnes of honey are consumed in New Zealand each year, with the surplus being exported. That puts our local consumption at about nearly 2 kg per person - that's quite high compared to most other countries.
Most of the commercial trade in honey is done in 200 litre food quality drums, though beekeepers do supply in smaller units (such as in a 20 litre plastic pail) for other purposes. Handling the larger drums requires adequate equipment and facilities - they weigh over 300 kg when full!
Honey, especially from larger packers and suppliers, can readily be supplied to strict specifications. Though it varies in flavour, colour, moisture content and other factors, suppliers are able to manage the quality, primarily though selection and blending of honeys. This enables a consistent supply of a standard product, something very important for both direct consumers of honey and for food technologists.
People LIKE honey. There are few people who do not have pleasant memories of honey, generally going back to childhood consumption. Even people who claim to not like honey do not harbour an overwhelming distaste for it, but only describing it as a food they do not care for.
It is well established as a 'health food'. Interestingly, it is one of the few food items that is able to maintain that consumer perception without suffering because of it. Most other 'health foods' are not accepted by the majority of people, being seen as crankish or faddish.
Honey is one of the great NATURAL food items - one doesn't have to stretch credibility or science to describe it as such! It has no additives or preservatives (none are needed!). No colourings are used, no emulsifiers or chemicals of ANY sort are added or used in the normal processing of honey to prepare it for market.
The actual transformation from nectar into honey, done by the bees themselves, is a more major 'change' to honey than that carried out by the beekeeper to extract honey from the comb and prepare it for the retail consumer!
Honey is easy to present to the consumer. It packs well into an attractive retail pack. In glass containers, or in jars that allow some view of the honey inside, the colour and (if liquid) sparkle of the product can accentuate the rest of the packaging.
The image of the hexagonal wax cells is immediately identifiable. It maintains the attitude of 'completely unprocessed or changed in any way', even for honey that has been extracted and packed into retail containers.
Honey can readily be used to make the association between flowers and food, providing visual imagery that is already well established in most peoples' minds. As many honeys in New Zealand are made from floral sources unique to our country, they are particularly well suited to capitalise on the positive aspects of New Zealand. The 'clean, green, unspoiled' image suits honey and honey products especially.
Though the connotations of 'a stinging insect' do not seem particularly positive, people seem able to overlook that possible down side. Even the beekeepers themselves seem to create positive images with people, possibly because of the wide spread of beekeeping as a hobby. Beekeeping for fun is carried out by all manner and types of people, with the full range of age, gender, economic and social class and occupations. It seems that almost everyone has an 'old Uncle Jack' in the family who used to keep bees, again often a memory from their childhood times.
As beekeeping and honey has such a long, well-known history, honey has a ready association with 'pioneer' and 'cottage' activities. The 'goodness of days and activities gone by' are conjured by the visual imagery of beekeeping and honey.
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