How to get ASAW in your local media

Written by the AUREA team

Word count: 1338 words
Estimated reading time: approx. 7 minutes

It’s time to put the Awareness in Aromantic-Spectrum Awareness Week! One of the biggest issues aromantics face is a lack of knowledge surrounding the identity. Coming out becomes an educational lecture, and then potentially a debate about whether or not it’s real or just something on the Internet. A great way to combat that and to reach all the potential aros who don’t know about aromanticism is to get it in the public eye. 

This ASAW we’re contacting the press. AUREA has sent out press releases to papers and magazines across the globe. If you want to see ASAW in your local paper, your college or university newspaper, you can do the same. If there’s going to be a ASAW specific event near you, you can absolutely do the same. Holding a specific event of your own, virtually or in public if it is safe to do so, is a great excuse to do this.

Press release?

To put it simply a press release is an announcement of an event that is given directly to the press. These statements are written up by an official party related to the event. In this case AUREA wrote the ASAW press release as we work jointly with other orgs on the running of the ASAW project. 

This official statement is for the media to quote from when writing about the event. It contains facts about the event, e.g. who, what, when, where, why, and some quotes from people involved. Our press release quotes AUREA president, Zuzanna, and Aces & Aros Volunteer Coordinator, Laura. They talk about what the event is/is for and how they feel about the event. 

All in all, it’s an extremely useful tool for disseminating information. We want to use that to our advantage. Below we will detail who to contact, write you up an email template, and link our ASAW press release. 

Who’s who

For the most part, it’s the editor you want. For college newspapers, for example, there’s the arts & culture editors, news editors, and the editor of the college paper. Any and all are who you want, and all is better. 

If there is a particular person you want to cover the event, email them directly. If you know of a queer person in the company, or someone has covered an asexual story previously, follow their name and see if they have an email attached. For journalists who are somewhat well established, it’s possible to find their email by putting their name in a search engine. If you can’t find an email, contacting the editor and mentioning their name and why you’re suggesting them works just as well. 

Papers will have a contact page with either a form or an email for you to use, they want people to contact them. If you aren’t sure who to email, or don’t know which email to choose, send it anyway. There’s a good chance it’ll get passed along to the right person internally. 

Writing the Email 

We’re generally going to follow typical email etiquette for this. We know press releases sound fancy, but what you’re really saying is “hey look at this.” 

For the subject line, keep it simple. At a minimum you want ‘Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week’. You can add ‘Press Release’ onto the end of that or add ‘Event - ’ before it. Some places have guides to subject lines, see if they have any instructions for you to follow. Don’t worry about people not knowing what ASAW is, that’s what the email and the press release are for. 

When it comes to addressing the email, either use the name of the editor/journalist you’re contacting or use the name of the organisation. Don’t overthink it, ‘hello’ is completely fine. 

In the following paragraph you want to catch and keep the reader's attention. Go straight into talking about either ASAW or the local event. As we said before who, what, when, where, why, and maybe how. If you aren’t sure whether the person you’re emailing knows about aromantics, then err on the side of caution and tell them what it is. 

The general practise for press releases is to talk specifically about a journalist’s previous work. E.g. “I read [ARTICLE TITLE or ARTICLE TOPIC], it was [COMPLIMENT].’ If you can do that, absolutely do. Tell them you think they’re the person for the job. If you’re emailing an organisation, you can potentially do the same by choosing an article that mirrors what you want to get for ASAW. If that’s not going to work, just talk generally about how the paper is an important resource for the local people, i.e. the readers. 

You need to decide what you want from the newspaper you’re contacting. Potentially you could ask them to just print the press release, depending on whether announcing events is something they do. Or you can suggest an interview. The most surefire way to do this is to volunteer yourself, aromantics are difficult to find. If you’re happy to do an interview or write an opinion piece, say so. You can ask for a different name to be used or remain anonymous. If this isn’t for you direct them to a local queer organisation, an a-spec group, or alternately us. AUREA does have a limited number of representatives, but that also means we’re always looking for more! We’d also like to note that local and university papers are going to want someone from the area. 

Follow up with mentioning the attached press release and make sure you attach the press release. It’s an easy mistake to make, we’ve done it before. Tell them to have a nice week/end, whatever pleasantries you normally do in an email and that’s it. If you get a response, send us a link when it’s published and we’ll boost the piece either during ASAW or after in the ASAW Round-up. We wish you good luck, because great things could come from this. 

The Email Template

Subject line: Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week

Hello [NAME/ORG],

Between the 21st and the 27th of this month is Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week (ASAW). Aromantic is a marginalised identity, like gay or bisexual, which commonly describes people who experience little to no romantic attraction to others. ASAW is an internationally recognised event to celebrate, educate, and raise awareness about aromanticism. 

Aromanticism is one of the least known and most forgotten identities under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, and so I am reaching out to you to ask for your help in spreading the word about ASAW. 

I read your [ARTICLE], it was [COMPLIMENT]. 

Or:

The work [PAPER’S NAME] does for the [LOCATION or COMMUNITY] is [COMPLIMENT].

(Same paragraph as the above line). With ASAW coming this month, now is a great time to cover this topic. An [INTERVIEW or OPINION PIECE] would be a huge help toward educating people on this identity and supporting aromantic advocacy. Alternately, publishing the press release as an event would be greatly appreciated. 

(New paragraph) I would be happy to [BE INTERVIEWED or WRITE AN OPINION PIECE] for you. You can best contact me [DETAILS]. 

Or:

[ORG NAME] would be a good place to look for an aromantic to interview or write an opinion piece. You can contact them [DETAILS]. 

Or:

[ORG NAME] is holding an ASAW event. [DETAILS ABOUT EVENT]. You can contact them/us at [DETAILS]. 

And/or:

You can find the ASAW Press Release attached and the official ASAW website at arospecweek.org. If you have any questions or are looking for further information, I’d be happy to answer you.

Kind regards,

Name, pronouns if you like. 

Press Release!

ASAW Press Release 2021 - Downloadable PDF file for the official ASAW event press release. 

ASAW Local Event Press Release 2021 - This a downloadable Word document template for you to fill in if you are holding an ASAW event. Change the title of the document to add in the group and/or the event’s name. Make this a PDF if you have the ability. If your device cannot support a Word document for edit, contact us at contact@aromanticism.org and we will sort something else out.