ACCESS Newswire Professional Promise Competition

Guidelines

Participants will complete a short, real-world PR task using ACCESS Newswire for a chance to win a high-value prize.

Required Task

1. Identify one newsworthy topic for:

• A student organization
• A personal brand
• A non-profit you care about
• A startup idea (real or hypothetical)

2. Build a targeted media list (at least five contacts) inside ACCESS Newswire for your selected topic.

Judging Criteria

Entries will be evaluated based on:

• Relevance of media list to your selected topic
• Strategic thinking shown in your short response
• Proper use of ACCESS Newswire tools

Media List

1. C. Lang (BroadwayWorld)
2. L. Culwell (Playbill)
3. A. Hutchinson (Social Media Today)
4. H. Frishberg (New York Post)
5. R. Sherman (The New York Times)
6. K. Dooley (University of Florida)
7. C. Hyland (Manhattanville University)
8. M. Kita (Muhlenberg College)
9. The New School

Strategic Reasoning

The American Theatre Wing will premiere the latest installment of its Master Class series, “Art of a Show Master Class,” on Thursday, Mar. 4. This episode focuses on theatrical marketing, featuring two graphic designer-copywriter pairs developing key art for a hypothetical play revival and pitching it to two industry leaders. Once published, it will serve as a leading free and accessible resource for educators and students interested in graphic design, copywriting and theatrical marketing. 

BroadwayWorld and Playbill are theatre news platforms, both of which would be enthusiastic to share media from an industry-leading nonprofit that is accessible to its national audiences, not just New York theatregoers. Social Media Today focuses on marketing news and Hutchinson has historically covered new online educational offerings for marketers. 

Since the American Theatre Wing is a New York City-based nonprofit and the episode features mentors and students currently working and learning in New York, the New York Post and The New York Times would be interested in both the cultural and local interest angles. Sherman previously wrote articles about student artists, as well as a recurring “theater to stream” column. Frisberg frequently covers arts-related beats. 

The four participants of the episode are affiliated with the University of Florida, Manhattanville University, Muhlenberg College and The New School. These institutions would want to broadcast that their alumni are featured in such a high-profile project. This distribution route also increases the likelihood that the episode will be shown in relevant classrooms.