Getting press companies to cover company news, brand launches and upcoming functions is great way to increase your business' exposure, but as more companies look to the press for marketing answers it is getting increasingly difficult to find spots in industry publications.

Journalist's are looking for truly unique story submittals that will pique the curiosity of their readers and also include high caliber media as supporting content. What does submitting a 'good story' really mean? How can you make sure the stories you submit are impossible to ignore?

Beverage Trade Network looks at the framework of a truly great story and interviews Meridith May, of The Tasting Panel Magazine, on the best practices to follow when submitting your story to a Press Company.

BTN outlines the 5 major components of a story that is guaranteed to find a captivated audience and asks Meridith May the tough questions:

1. The Lead (or Lede in Modern American Journalism.)

The lead is a well thought out and provoking sentence or phrase of sentences engineered to highlight the high point of your story and get your readers hooked. Try and touch on the most exciting parts of your content while also including newsworthy information. A well written lead will include the Who, What, Why, Where, and Whens without feeling overloaded. Many school's of thought believe the Lead to be the most important part of any story. You can always leave this part to the very end, but trying to write it first gives you a good idea of how you want your story to develop.

2. Nut Graph (the In-A-Nutshell Paragraph.)

The Nut Graph gives the reader all of the different subjects talked about in the article, but as a string of teasers. You want your reader to continue reading, so don't go overboard here. Just give a glimpse of what you've got in store for them. Think of it as an intro paragraph designed to lure your reader into the deeper descriptive body of your story. All of the ideas are present, but there's too many facts missing for the reader to stop reading.