In this fast-paced world of media and publicity, capturing the attention of your audience hinges on the news value of your story. But how do you quantify something as seemingly subjective as news value?

Welcome to the definitive guide for publicity seekers looking to gauge the impact potential of their story angles. This post will introduce you to a systematic approach for evaluating your content through an innovative tool: our very own News Value Matrix.

“This post will introduce you to a systematic approach for evaluating your content through an innovative tool…”

Crafted with input from seasoned journalists and PR professionals, our matrix is designed to help you dissect and assess your story against key elements that command media attention.

Whether you’re aiming to make headlines, trend on social media, or simply get your message across effectively, understanding and using this matrix can be your game-changer.

How do you know if something is ‘newsworthy’?

To measure the news value of a story angle, journalists often use news values or news factors (instinctively or otherwise) that are criteria used to determine the ‘newsworthiness‘ of a story.

These criteria can vary, but some common news values include:

1. Timeliness:

How recent or current is the story? Does the story evoke strong emotions or human interest elements?

2. Proximity:

How close is the story to the audience geographically or emotionally?

3. Impact:

What is the potential impact of the story on the audience or society?

4. Prominence:

Are the people or organisations involved in the story well-known?

5. Conflict:

Does the story involve conflict or controversy?

6. Human Interest:

Does the story evoke strong emotions or human interest elements?

How to measure whether something is newsworthy?

But how can you quantify something as intangible as ‘newsworthiness’?

Well, we’ve designed a simple way to measure the news value of a story angle in the form of a matrix, where we’ve applied a numerical value to each of the criterion outlined above (using a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the lowest value):

1. Timeliness:

  • 1: Not time-sensitive
  • 5: Extremely time-sensitive

2. Proximity:

  • 1: Distant or unrelated to the audience
  • 5: Very close or directly affecting the audience

3. Impact:

  • 1: Minimal impact on the audience or community
  • 5: Significant impact on the audience or community

4. Prominence:

  • 1: Involving individuals or entities of little significance to the audience
  • 5: Involving highly prominent individuals or entities

5. Conflict:

  • 1: Lacking in conflict or controversy
  • 5: Involving significant conflict or controversy

6. Human Interest:

  • 1: Lacking human interest elements
  • 5: Highly engaging human interest elements

You can use this matrix to evaluate different story angles by assigning a numerical value/rating for each criterion and then comparing the overall scores to determine the news value of each angle.

“…use this matrix to evaluate different story angles by assigning a numerical value or rating for each criterion…” 

In practice

To put this into practice, if you were to evaluate story angles on their newsworthiness, you could assign a score for each criterion based on how well the story meets each one. For example:

Story Angle A: Local High School Team Wins National Championship

CRITERIA

SCORE

Timeliness

5

The event just occurred, making it highly current.

Proximity

5

The story is about a local team, so it’s geographically close.

Impact

3

Affects the local community and alumni but not beyond that.

Prominence

2

High school teams are not widely known nationally.

Conflict

4

Sports competition embodies conflict and struggle.

Human Interest

4

Engaging emotionally; pride in local achievements.

Total News Value Score for Story Angle A: 23

Story Angle B: Celebrity Announces Retirement

CRITERIA

SCORE

Timeliness

4

Interest may fade quickly, but the announcement is current.

Proximity

2

Unless the celebrity is local, proximity is low.

Impact

2

Limited impact unless the celbrity’s work affects many.

Prominence

5

High value due to celebrity’s fame.

Conflict

1

Little to no conflict involved in a retirement announcement (unless the reason for the retirement is a health-based reason or due to personal struggles etc).

Human Interest

3

Fans may find this emotionally engaging.

Total News Value Score for Story Angle B: 17 

One we prepared earlier

To save you the trouble of having to create this yourself, we’ve done it for you and created our own Matrix for Measuring News Value* [DOWNLOAD] for you to use and apply to your own story angles.

This tool should help ensure that when you’re next pitching story ideas to the media, you’re not just making noise, and instead making news!  

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