How to Write a Press Release – A 5 Step How-To From a Journalist
Is the humble press release past its sell-by date?
Is PR the forgotten cousin, the unwanted stepchild, and the tipsy uncle at Christmas?
Maybe? Yet, do press releases, publicity, and traditional media coverage have a place in the world of Social media, Facebook, IG stories, UGC and inbound marketing?
How to Write a Press Release from Journalist Perspective 2021
At a recent #SMECommunity meeting up or #Tweetup in Birr, Co Offaly we were blessed with the views of a journalist on public affairs, news releases and press-release and what stories are newsworthy.
Blessed were we with multiple keynote speakers including @laurajRyder . The PR words of wisdom she bestowed were priceless and worthy of sharing.
Her presentation ‘What Journalists Want’ from a press-release was more than a simple how-to-write-a-press-release.
Laura’s journalist advice and insight spoke directly to the principles of modern marketing, storytelling and how your customer problems are the thing you must solve.
Every Journalist Wants A Compelling Story – Just like your Customers
[Update July ’13 with Infogrphic]
Her newspaper is the Offaly Independent. It is a Co. Offaly, Ireland, newspaper, yes the same Co. Offaly that President Barack Obama hails from. The paper has a weekly circulation of ~14K and a readership North of 40K, for a population of 77K.
The Offaly Independent is looking for news stories. “News flash”!
Definition of a Press Release – Redux
This site says: The humble press release, news release, media release, press statement or video release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something ostensibly newsworthy.
Bill Stoller, @PublicityGuru , gives us a simplified definition on his site, “A press release is a pseudo-news story, written in third
person, which seeks to demonstrate to an editor or reporter the newsworthiness of a particular person, event, service or product.
PR News, in a blog post for small businesses, breaks it down further by writing, “A press release is really just another term for (hopefully intriguing) content and as a small business communicator, and it’s your job to make every word count.”
A blog post by @wilreynolds recently discussed a business that got significant exposure, plus SEO benefits, from a US regional newspaper with one simple press release.
In the post, Will dissects one of the paths to press release success.
The premises of all good press releases:
- Is it TIMELY (with current events)
- The release was not PROMOTIONAL
- The release was not CONTROVERSIAL
- It was not THE FIRST
He continues that press releases alone aren’t a business or marketing strategy and therefore fashion the press release (think of a press release as an asset, not a liability) so it relates to a wider audience than your current client base. Think in terms of creating a conversational piece.
How to Write a Press Releases – What Journalist want (it’s the story!)
The media has been disintermediated. Buyers read your press releases directly, you need to talk their language. — David Meerman Scott
Laura Ryder gets most of hers as emails. She also searches daily on Twitter for stories. And suggest the appropriate #hashtags used in your tweets #Location @peeps #event help them get noticed.
Think and make your press release you submit a “Friction Free Press Release” — how can you make your press releases submissions as easy as possible on the journalist?
Do that and you leave the journalist with one action to take — publish your press release.
“Make the story (your press release) about your customers and their issues not about you how great you think your product is.”
@laurajRyder
What a piece of fantastic and priceless advice all businesses should adopt.
She tells us a story of an artist who hands knits wreaths for the front doors of houses. They are personalized with inscriptions and colours.
The artist submitted a press release: “Artisan” has been in business for 3 years and had a great holiday season selling 200 wreaths worldwide. See contact detail below for more info.”
“This is not news and I can’t print this!”
A suggested rewrite is to fashion the story about her customers and their issues.
Laura suggested how 3 different families in Australia received the wreaths in time for the holidays. The gifts from home warmed up their hearts immensely as they would not be coming home for Christmas. Here are the proud photos (as proof and credibility) of the ex-pats in Australia.
“Now that’s new!” And I would publish that!
The Basics of a How to Write a Press Release
How to write a press release must cover the basic 5W and H rules plus a few more.
- Who, what, when, where, why and how
- use quotes + statistics (I added them)
- use short sentences
- include dates
- have Contact details
- include captions with the photos
Who is sending this press release? What is the story about? When did/will it happen? Why is this story interesting/important?
The why, what, where, when and how is the foundation of any news story, blog post, and communication. Entry-level journalism lesson. Every newspaper article conveys these in the first paragraph of the story.
Quotes, Statistics — “quotes add authority to a story”. TV news uses this tacit in every news story. Quotes can also be layered.
Watch the evening news and observe. The new anchor sits in the studio and introduces the story. The video cuts to the local reporter and introduces the story from the ‘on the ground perspective’ and then interviews an eyewitness (reinforced with the reporter quoting the eyewitness).
“Wreath exports increased by 200% helping fuel the local economy”
Dates — date your submission. Her internal workflow entails coping with the contents of the email and pasting them into the newspaper’s internal software. This is a swipe file idea. The date on the email is not included with this, therefore, add a date in your press release.
Captions with the photos. Use captions as they provide context. Laura adds that without captions pictures are useless. And the best pictures are headshots of people.
How to Write a Press Release the Dos and Don’ts
Things I Hate in Press Releases — Laura
- Random capital letters – says it all. Capitol LETTERs, are sloppiness and an attempt to get noticed.
- Making ‘mountain out of mole hill’ – review the newsworthiness of your story. More words will not magically transform an almost story into a story.
- Essays – elaborating for the sake of elaborating is unhelpful. The best press releases tell a story about people using your product in a concise and engaging way.
- No Captions – see above point.
- Old news– She suggests almost all stories are important, but, events and stories at timely.
- Fancy fonts – what is the point? Don’t use them as they detract from the story/content.
- No dates
- Bombarding me constantly— sending an excessive number of emails. Offer she uses the ‘Del’ often — It’s A “Muscle Memory Thing”. Don’t be annoying.
Things Journalists don’t Really Care About
- Email subject lines
- Your language
Email Subject Lines — Laura offers that email subject lines do not matter. In addition, offer that she reads all her emails. Remember the ‘Del key is a muscle memory thing. Your results may vary with email subject lines, however, so to test, test, and test some more.
Your language — be professional, not profane, spell check, have no fancy fonts, and get to the point of the story.
Format of the press release — in a story format, bullet points etc., is not relevant.
A few Basics for “Friction Free Press Releases”
- Do a word check
- Proofread it – ‘I’m not the grammar police, but…
- Reread as a stranger
- Read it backwards
Laura suggests that your story is clear in your head, but, did the story translate into words on the paper in an ordered, concise and logically way?
Reread as if seeing it for the first time. @cutehoney suggests reading the document backwards, sound practice.
A few things of Note
Attachments – preferably not
Timing – many days before the deadline (research when the deadline occurs).
No attachments please, place all content in the body of the email.
Send in the press release many days before the deadline — for editing, follow-up and clarification reasons.
How to get (your press release) Noticed
- Offer stories that will not directly benefit you
- Keep in touch often – build a relationship with me
- Think new news (don’t rehash)
- Make your news searchable on Twitter
Offer stories that will not directly benefit you — Sound advice for all great marketing. This suggestion is not a revelation to content marketers, but, it’s valuable journalistic insight never-the-less.
As business owners and marketers we must begin to think like a journalist and less like advertisers. Laura’s suggestion encapsulates this concept elegantly. Traditional interruption-based marketing methods are losing effectiveness. As marketers and business owners we need to embrace the concepts of becoming publishers and storytellers. Shouting louder at your prospects with advertisements is losing effectiveness and probably doing your business harm.
The Marketing Takeaways on How to Write a Press Release
- Make your press release about your customers and their issues
- Friction Free Press Releases — Easy as possible on the journalist
- Mountain out of a molehill – Review the newsworthiness of your story
- Get the basics correct, — Who, what, where, when and how
- “Quotes” and statistics add value
- Photos with caption
- Timing of your submission
Over to you: What Press Release Tips can you share?
Share your comments below.
Wreath by Angelina Jollivet
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