A story with only average interest needs to be told quickly if it is to be told at all. If it happened today, it's news. If the same thing happened last week, it's no longer interesting.

Significance
The number of people affected by the story is important. As sensational as it may sound, an explosion in Cardiff in which hundreds of homes are damaged is more significant than a crash in Newport that injures four people.

Proximity
Stories which happen near to us have more significance. The closer the story to home, the more newsworthy it is. So a PR story relating to a business in Swansea is not going to be of relevance to the South Wales Echo in Cardiff, unless there is some other bond or link.

Prominence
Famous people get more coverage just because they are famous. If you break your leg it won't make the news, but if the Queen of England breaks her leg it's big news. See our TSM section for details of how we use celebrities in public relations to gain media interest in Wales.

Human Interest
Human interest stories are a bit of a special case. They often disregard the main rules of newsworthiness; for example, they don't date as quickly, they need not affect a large number of people, and it may not matter where the story takes place.
Human interest stories appeal to emotion and can make great PR case studies. They aim to evoke responses such as amusement or sadness. Television news programmes often place a humorous or quirky story at the end of the show to finish on a feel-good note. Newspapers often have a dedicated area for offbeat or interesting items.