It seems like common sense, when times are rough people crave good news and take it when and where they can.

It’s an important fact for PR agencies. With the dismal economy dominating the news recently, media outlets are asking for pitches on feel-good stories/items.  Even opening it up to the public – like NBC Nightly News, whose anchor Brian Williams requested on the show’s blog that viewers “tell us your good news.”

There is a market for the upbeat, the positive.  Stories of everyday people enduring difficulties and succeeding are especially attractive.  If you can tie value and social responsibility to your clients’ brand you’ve got a golden opportunity.  It will be a natural fit at a time when people are turning to these types of values regardless.

Examples are all around: the media frenzy surrounding Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger after his safe emergency landing in the Hudson, Goldman Sachs un-traditional, philanthropic homepage, people are desperate for a bit of hope and stories with happy endings.

Public relations professionals also need to pay attention to outlets that offer people an ‘escape’.   Entertainment news is proving to be recession-proof industry, with the public still reading People and watching Oprah – so going for that soft news angle can pay off big time.

You know what?  Not everyone gets to be on the Today Show or Oprah…and that’s OK.

Example: You’ve got an awesome new product/service etc. so naturally you write up a press release.  Now you can either submit it to Oprah and wait for them to find and notice yours out of the thousands they receive daily and call – OR you can tweak your release to be SEO-friendly and submit it to a distribution service.  Ensuring that your press release reaches a wide variety of search engines, blogs, websites and even journalists who are actually very interested in your product/service and will write about it.

Maybe you do both, but the point is that you’re going to be better off diversifying and letting a larger number of people find you, even though they may be in smaller niche markets.  David Meerman Scott had 2 ideas on how PR is evolving that are particularly applicable to this strategy (from his blog):

1. The old ways to get noticed were to buy expensive advertising and beg the media to write about you and your products.  The best way to get noticed today is to publish great content online.
2. Don’t talk about what your products and services do.  Instead talk about how you solve problems for your customers.

PR and the world of the press release is changing, traditional media sources are on the decline and online distribution methods are more accessible and producing better results than ever.  That is why we say go ahead and reach for that low hanging fruit.  While all your competitors are fighting each other for access to the top you’ll be building a solid base of customers and attention.  And who knows, maybe if enough of the small-time players are singing your praises the big media outlets will take notice eventually anyway.