Getting Media Attention
Getting in the paper is a big deal, but it doesn't have to be a big struggle. Here are some tips and tricks for reaching more people through writing and interviews.
Why do this
Club meetings and events are a great way to engage students in your school, but writing an article for your paper can reach even more people and help get you in front of:
- Decision-makers who can help you accomplish your goals
- Parents who can push schools to act and support your club
- Other students who didn't know you existed, which helps you recruit
It also helps build your credibility as a club. A published piece shows you're organized and doing real work, which makes it easier to get a meeting with an administrator, ask for funding, or get another outlet to cover you next time.
Four ways to do it
Pick the one that fits where you are. Tap a box to open it.
Option 01 Write it yourself An op-ed, a first-person piece, or a letter to the editor under your own byline.
You write the piece and the paper runs it under your name. You control what it says and how it ends.
Three formats:
- Op-ed — 600–900 words arguing for a specific change.
- First-person piece — what you've seen or done at your school.
- Letter to the editor — 150–250 words responding to something the paper already ran. Almost no gatekeeping, turnaround of a few days. Start here if you've never done this.
Use this when there's a decision coming that you want to influence, or the coverage so far has left out students.
Aela Mansmann, then a high school student in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, wrote about pushing her school to handle assault allegations better. She opens with the specific problem, not a general one:
"Over the past several school years, multiple sexual assaults have been reported at my high school in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. But the school administration's investigations into them have been inconsistent — a number of survivors have said that their cases were not handled by the administration in a way that complies with Title IX laws."
The rest goes in order: organizing a prevention summit, speaking at the school board, running a walkout with demands. It ends with an ask aimed at administrators:
"School administrators can choose to be proactive in making their schools safer from harassment and assault, or they can wait for their students to force their hands."
"My fight to push my high school to better handle sexual assault allegations" — WMC FBomb
Another exampleAndrew Davis, then a graduate student at Brown University, wrote in USA Today about the delay in finalizing new Title IX rules:
"President Biden must act now to ensure that these crucial Title IX rules aren't further delayed by a government in chaos, and that the Department of Education has the resources needed to finalize new Title IX rules."
Option 02 Ask to be covered Pitch a reporter or your school paper. Someone else writes it; you get interviewed.
Someone else writes the story and you get interviewed. You don't have to write anything.
At your school paper: find the editor-in-chief or news editor on the masthead, or ask the faculty advisor who covers school policy. Then ask: "We're a student group working on consent education and dating violence prevention. Is that something you'd want to cover?" Let them choose the format.
At your local paper: try to find the reporter who covers education, K-12, or local government. Their name is on their stories and staff emails are usually on the contact page. If you can't find one, their general info@ address works as a backup.
Bring a hook. Papers cover events, not topics. A district policy vote, a club launch, an assembly, a walkout, or Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April all give an editor a reason to run something now.
Ria Escamilla-Gil, a reporter for The Justice at Brandeis University, interviewed SafeBAE board member Abbie Brier for a profile of the organization — how it started, what Brier does running programming in Rhode Island, and its reach across 47 states. Brier didn't have to write anything. She answered questions, and the quotes carried the piece:
"I do not know how I would have done this without the organization."— Abbie Brier, quoted in The Justice
The article also uses her to explain how SafeBAE works: it "is completely student-led and works with students in high schools and colleges to train them in peer advocacy."
"SafeBAE: Breaking barriers one school at a time" — The Justice
Option 03 Go through SafeBAE Write for the SafeBAE blog or be interviewed for it. The easiest first byline.
SafeBAE publishes student writing, chapter updates, and survivor-centered stories. It's the lowest-stakes way to get a real byline, and having one published piece makes every later pitch easier.
What the blog runs:
- From Student to Advocate: How Dorie Revitalized Consent and Support at Central Catholic
- Why Students Walk Out: The Westlake High Protest and the Power of Youth Activism
- New York Just Passed a Bill to Protect Minors from Unsafe AI Chatbots
- The Real Crisis Behind the Manosphere
Things you could pitch:
- Your own story. What changed at your school and how you did it, a walkthrough of a program your chapter ran, or what you learned starting a club from nothing.
- Culture commentary. A show, a movie, an app, a trend, or something happening online, and what it gets right or wrong about consent.
- An explainer. Take something confusing — Title IX, what a reporting process looks like, how consent laws differ by state — and break it down for people your age.
- Local news. A policy vote, a protest, a lawsuit, or a decision in your district or state, and what it means for students.
- Policy news. A new bill or court ruling, explained plainly.
Read a few recent posts for length and range, then send a two-sentence idea and say whether you'd rather write it or be interviewed.
SafeBAE blog · Email your pitch to clubsupport@safebae.org
Option 04 Start your own A podcast, newsletter, or Instagram series. Smaller audience, no gatekeeping.
If nobody's covering it, cover it yourself: a podcast, a newsletter, an Instagram series. You have to build the audience yourself, but you can start today and nobody has to approve it.
Use this when your school paper is slow or won't run the topic, or you'd rather build something the club keeps than land one story.
HerStory is a podcast by Victoria Wang and Everson Li, students at Flintridge Preparatory School, a SafeBAE partner school. For Sexual Assault Awareness Month they interviewed SafeBAE co-founder Shael Norris and co-chair Aela Mansmann about why the organization was founded and what schools should be doing.
How to pitch
Whether you're offering to write something or asking to be covered, the email is the same: three paragraphs, under 200 words, sent to one named person. It needs to say what the story is, why now, why you, and what you're offering.
Email template
Read three recent issues before you pitch, so you know what they publish and how long it runs. Then follow up once, about a week later.
Most pitches get no reply. Follow up once, then try a different person at the same outlet, a different outlet, or a different hook.
After it publishes
- Send it to SafeBAE. Email the link to info@safebae.org or tag @safe_bae. SafeBAE shares student coverage across its channels, which puts your piece in front of a national audience instead of just your town.
- Send it to the people who can act on it — principal, Title IX coordinator, school board members — with two sentences: here's the piece, here's what we're asking for.
- Post it everywhere the club exists and tag the outlet, the writer, and @safe_bae so SafeBAE can reshare it.
- Thank the reporter or editor. One short email. It makes the next story easier.
- Save a PDF and a screenshot. Links break and student papers get redesigned. Keep an archive folder the club passes down.
- Watch what happens next. If the school responds, that's a new story. If they don't, that's also a story.
If you get stuck
"Our school paper won't run this topic."
Ask them why. Usually it's the specific angle you pitched, not the subject, and angles are easy to change. Try a piece on what your club does, a Q&A with your faculty advisor, or an explainer on how your school's reporting process works. Those tend to clear review when a piece about a specific incident won't. If it's still no, go to the local paper, write for the SafeBAE blog, or start your own.
"I'm not a good writer."
You're probably a better writer than you think — most people underestimate themselves here. You can also ask your faculty advisor or an English teacher to help you edit. And if you're still not confident, co-write it with a few classmates or ask to be interviewed instead.
"We don't have a news hook."
Make one. Host an event, survey students, request the school's reporting data, or submit a proposal to the school board. Each of those happens on a specific date, which is an easy hook!