Writing a Proper Press Release

1
Writing a Proper Press Release

• How to get your message across to the media

2
Items to Cover

• Relationships
• Targeting
• The Press Release
• Formatting / writing
• Follow-up

3
Relationships

• THE single most important aspect of
  communications
• How are relationships built?
• On reputations
• Hard work
• TRUST / honesty
• Follow-up

4
Relationships

• Care and feeding of ones relationships are
  critical to ones success

5
Targeting

• Ultimate goal of the press release is to have
  language you use and define used by the reporter
  in the story
• REALITYmost press releases are never read

6
Targeting

• How to catch attention and reach the goal
• Targeting

7
Targeting

• Two-step process
• Know your audience
• Anticipate and meet their needs

8
Knowing Your Audience

• Generally two audiences for a release
• The reporter
• The end readers
• Each is different, but must be addressed
  simultaneously

9
Who Is the Reporter?

• Professional
• Standards and norms they must conform to
• Gatekeeper
• Along with the Editor, they decide what is news

10
Who Is the Reporter?

• Public good
• See themselves as serving their readers
• Provide a product
• Must provide a product people WANT

11
Who Is the Reader?

• The average citizen
• Best to imagine someone just like you
• Looking for information AND entertainment
• They want hard news, but in a form that is
  interesting, compelling, and relevant

12
Who Is the Reader?

• Pressed for time
• Busy lives and lots of competing information
• Dont assume they know anything, but NEVER lie or
  stretch the truth

13
Audience Needs

• The Reporter
• Good story
• News Value

• Impact
• Timeliness
• Prominence
• Novelty
• Current interest
• Conflict
• Proximity

14
Audience Needs

• The Reader
• The Five Ws and One H
• Who
• What
• Where
• When
• Why
• How

15
Audience Needs

• The Reader
• Conditioned to accept the News Values as valid

16
The Press Release

• Basic tool
• Fixed Format
• Looks and reads like a news story
• Gives information in the briefest space
• Easy to read and understand
• Written in third person

17
The Press Release

• Seeks to demonstrate to an editor or reporter the
  newsworthiness of a particular person, event,
  service, or product
• When used correctlyvery effective

18
The Press Release

• Often sent alone
• E-mail, fax, or snail mail
• May be part of a full press kit
• May be accompanied by a pitch letter

19
Press Release Format

• Use company letterhead
• Who is sending the releasecontact information

20
Press Release Format

• Near the top of the page should be written For
  immediate release, and the date
• A headline or title

21
Press Release Format

• The Lead(e)encapsulates the entire story in the
  first sentence
• Body copy
• Communicate the 5 Ws and the H Who, what, when,
  where, why, and how

22
Press Release Format

• Background information about the organization in
  the last paragraph
• Written in the active voice, the tone of all
  news reporting
• Some sort of symbol indicating the end ( or
  end-), a journalistic standard

23
Important Tip

• Reporter isn't interested in helping you make
  money or drive visitors to your site
• Does not care about you, your superlative
  organization, or your problems

24
Important Tip

• Looking for a story
• Interesting to his readers
• Pleasing to his editor
• Wants to know only the info that will help him
  craft a good story

25
Press Release Headline

• Written in bold and in much larger font than the
  text of the release
• Use keywords and main points from the release

26
Press Release Headline

• Write the headline after the body of the release
  is done
• State your most exciting news, finding or
  announcement in as few words as possible

27
Press Release Headline

• Bad Press Release Headline
• NEW WEBSITE THAT OFFERS HERBAL WEIGHT LOSS
  PROGRAMS LETS TEENS SPEAK OUT ABOUT WEIGHT ISSUES

28
Press Release Headline

• Good Press Release Headline
• TEENSULTRA-THIN MOVIE, POP STARS SET BAD
  EXAMPLE

29
Press Release Subhead

• Remarkably useful, yet usually overlooked
• Provides opportunity to flesh out your angle and
  further hook the reporter

30
Press Release Lead

• It's Journalism 101
• Lead paragraph includes the who, what, when,
  where and how of the story
• If only the lead of a good press release were
  read, reporter would have everything he needed to
  get started

31
Rest of the Press Release

• Serves to back up whatever claims were made in
  the lead and headline
• Use quotes
• Be sure to obtain permission
• Use enough supporting material to make your case

32
AP Style

• How all news is written
• The Associated Press Style Book
• Active Voice
• Inverted Pyramid
• Lead(e) Sentence
• Quotes are Important
• NO PUFFERY

33
Final Paragraph

• Boilerplate
• Block of standard text used to describe the
  organization and what it does
• One or two short sentences
• Placed just above the s

34
One More Trick

• Final line that says something like, For more
  information about Freemasonry and the Scottish
  Rite, please call Brent Morris at 555-232-3579 or
  e-mail him at sbmorris_at_supremecouncil.org
• Placed below the s

35
(No Transcript)
36
Content of the Press Release

• What should be put in the Press Release?
• Think like a reporter
• News values
• Proximity
• Timeliness
• Drama

37
Content of the Press Release

• Separate real news from promotional puffery
• Deliver a sharp story angle that will be of real
  interest to the reading or viewing public

38
Content of the Press Release

• Deliver the story in a professional and courteous
  way
• Paragraph at the end of the release with stock
  background information about the releasing
  organization
• What can I do to make this more useful to a
  journalist?

39
Pictures

• Action Pictures
• People Pictures
• Avoid clichés
• Include Attribution / Credit

40
Key Things to Remember

• Stay away from hype-bloated phrases like
  "breakthrough", "unique", "state-of-the-art",
  etc.
• Always write from a journalist's
  perspectivenever use "I" or "we" unless it's in
  a quote

41
Key Things to Remember

• Read lots of good newspaper writing to get a feel
  for the style
• Shorter is better. If you can say it in two
  pages, great. If you can say it in one page,
  better.
• Timing is criticalmust be relevant and recent
  news

42
Valley Example
43
Writing a Proper Press Release

• How to get your message across to the media