News releases are often viewed as the bread and butter of public relations. They are a popular tool for creating knowledge and understanding and can be the basis of a solid media relations programme.
What makes a story newsworthy? The answer depends on the audience. It is the editor’s or news editor’s job to judge whether it is of interest to the audience. It is the PR professional’s job to understand the audience, target information accordingly and write the press release in the right style.
Getting the right format and content
There is a standard format for press releases. Type should be clear and spaced. The heading and date should be clear and generally the release should not be more than a page and a half long, apart from financial results releases.
The headline should be a concise summing up of the release content – ambiguity won’t do you any favours. The opening paragraph should be a summary of the whole story, bringing out the most important highlights. Save for a short descriptor, information about the company should be put in the “boiler plate” which is a company summary in the “editors’ notes” section at the end.
Be sure to have answered all the questions that a reporter is likely to ask – if you cover what, when, who, why and how then you should be ok. If you can include statistics and figures, this can only improve the impact of the release. Including quotes from relevant parties is also useful and a quote from an industry expert (e.g. a trade association, analyst, customer) can really help to strengthen the release.
As well as boiler plates, the editors’ notes section should include information on pricing, state if there’s photography available and the availability of spokespeople if relevant. The press contact information should come at the end.
Distributing releases
It is vital to get the right press list together, ensuring you have all the right publications and news outlets and the right contacts at those media. Many PRs are lambasted for following up press releases. “Did you get that release that I sent you yesterday?” is journalists’ number one bug bear.
The best tack is to cherry pick a list of key publications to which you can pitch the release in to. This means you can give journos a quick call to run them through the story and send the release through if they’re interested. This means they will have their eyes open for it and will be more likely to read the email, as they get deluged by email press releases, many of which are irrelevant.
Quick tips
Do:
· Think about what will interest the readers, listeners, viewers
· Write in plain English
· Use the active, not the passive
· Be factual
· Always get someone else to proof-read your release before sending it out
· Spend some time creating a well-targeted media distribution list
· ‘Sell in’ the release to a small group of relevant journalists before distributing it widely
Don’t:
· Use jargon – layman’s terms are far better
· Use a long word where a short word will do
· Use advertising or marketing speak e.g. revolutionary, unique, best-of-breed
· Use phrases such as ‘having said that’; ‘it goes without saying’; ‘at this moment in time’
· Follow up on a press release once it has been distributed as this only serves to annoy the journalist