.png)
Key takeaways
- Start early and reach the right journalists: Contact relevant local media at least 1–2 weeks in advance and target those covering health, education, or gender topics.
- Make it easy to cover your story: Provide clear event details, strong visuals, quotes, and follow-up materials to support journalists before and after the event.
- Use every channel to boost visibility: Combine media outreach with your own social media and relevant data to strengthen your story and increase chances of coverage.
We know, there’s a lot to do when planning your MH Day activity. It’s easy to focus on activities, logistics, participants and content. But there’s another thing that can significantly amplify your impact: (local) media coverage.
Media attention helps bringing MHH into public conversations, reaches people beyond your network and strengthens the visibility of your work. The good news? You don’t need much to make it happen! Here are a few tips you can get your local media to cover your activity with:
<h2 class="heading-style-h4"> Reach out to journalists early
(seriously, earlier than you think!)</h2>
One of the most important things you can do is to reach out to journalists early. Journalists plan their schedules in advance, if you contact them just a day or two before your event, chances are they’re already booked. Reaching out at least 1-2 weeks in advance gives them time to consider attending and hopefully plan a story around it.
<h2 class="heading-style-h4">Find the right contacts</h2>
You might be wondering: How do I even find journalists to contact?
Here are a few simple ways:
- Visit the websites of local newspapers, radio stations and TV channels. Many list editorial contacts or specific journalists.
- Look for journalists who have covered topics like health, education or gender equality in the past.
- Search LinkedIn, X or Facebook for journalists in your area.
- Ask within your network – someone might already know a journalist or have a contact they can share.
If you find a general newsroom email, that’s okay too. It’s always better to reach out than not to try.
<h2 class="heading-style-h4">Invite journalists to your event</h2>
A short, clear and friendly email or text message works best. Make it easy for them to understand what is happening and why it matters.
Your invitation should include:
- The date & location of your event
- Brief description of participants, e.g. students, community members etc.
- Key highlights of the event, e.g. panel discussion, workshop etc.
- Your name, organisation and contact details
- The challenges you aim to address or the impact you intend to have through your activity.
➔ You can also refer to our media page, which provides background information on MH Day in general.
<h2 class="heading-style-h4">Make your event media-friendly</h2>
Think about what makes a story interesting from a journalist’s perspective. During your event, try to capture strong visuals like photos and short video clips of engaged participants or activities. If someone says something powerful during a speech – write it down or record it. These quotes make a big difference in whether your story gets picked up not not.
Don’t forget to take some extra time to speak to the journalists during your event or assign somebody from your team to accompany them!
<h2 class="heading-style-h4">Share event summary after</h2>
Even if no journalist attends your event, your effort is not wasted!
Just follow up by sending a short email with a brief summary of what happened during your event, selected high-quality[IU4] photos or videos and some key quotes. This makes it much easier for journalists to still cover the event afterwards.
<h2 class="heading-style-h4">Use facts to strengthen the story</h2>
Journalists are more likely to report on your event if you connect it to the bigger picture. Include relevant statistics or facts about menstrual health and hygiene, especially if you can link them to your country or region - this helps underline why your activity matters beyond just one day. To make this easier, we’ve prepared a factsheet to support you with ready-to-use data and statistics.
<h2 class="heading-style-h4">Use your own social media to share your event</h2>
Your social media channels are more powerful than you might think. Post about your event before, during and after. Journalist often monitor social media for story ideas - your posts might be exactly what they’re looking for. Also, don’t forget to tag #MHDay2026 and #PeriodFriendlyWorld!
<h2 class="heading-style-h4">And one last thing – don‘t get discouraged!</h2>
Not every journalist will respond, not every event will get covered. But that doesn’t mean your outreach didn’t matter. Every email you send helps to put menstrual health and hygiene and your work on the radar - every post, every invite and every follow-up contributes to making MHH more visible and harder to ignore.
You are not just organising an event but also helping shape the global and local conversation!
