Writing Press Releases

The Reality of Today’s Media

People in the media, like everywhere else, are very busy. There are fewer people working to fill the same amount of space in the publication or time on the air. They’re in a hurry to find the story and get it written before deadline.

This is both good news and bad news for you, the person trying to get noticed by the media. It can be great if you offer the busy reporter a great story and make it easy for them to contact you. It’s bad if writing a press release the right way is beyond you, because a poorly written press release will just get tossed by the busy reporter as they move on to the next thing.

Make It Newsworthy

The number one rule of writing and sending press releases is to make sure you are notifying the press of something that is actually newsworthy, not just something you think is newsworthy.

What makes news? Something new, different, unusual, timely, local, factual, something that other people will be interested in, something people will talk about.

Your business opening is news. Having a sale or changing hours is not. If you give a speech at a national convention, that’s probably news. If the convention is taking place in your hometown, it’s definitely news. The more of those above-listed categories your story can fill, the more likely you are to get coverage.

Direct It to the Right Person

Another important aspect of getting the media to write about you is directing your press release to the right person. The Internet makes it a lot easier to find the right person to send your fax or e-mail to.

If you’re writing about your business opening, send your information to the business editor. If you want to comment on a news item that has something to do with your business (we’ll get back to that in a minute), contacting the news side would make more sense. For a radio or television station, contact the news director or look for a fax number especially for press releases.

If all else fails, call the publication or the station and ask the person who answers the phone who you can direct your press release to. They will know the answer.

Inverted Pyramid

Traditional newspaper writing is written in a format called inverted pyramid style, and it’s a great way to structure your press release. Imagine a pyramid. Then turn it upside down, so the wide base is at the top and the skinny point is at the bottom.

A story written in inverted pyramid style has the most important information (the “base” of the story) at the top, and as you read down the page the information gets less important, including more background information and details that are interesting but not crucial to the story.

The idea behind this format comes from trying to design a newspaper on deadline. If the story is too long, you don’t want to have to re-edit to take out the information that’s not vital. It’s faster to lop off the end of the story, because that’s where the least important information is.

A lot of newspapers don’t really write like this any more, but it’s still a great way to format your press release. Put the most important information at the top and work down the page in order of importance.

What’s the most important information? It depends on what your news is, but the classic important information includes:

• Who: Who did the newsworthy thing, or who is going to be involved in the news event?
• What: What happened or what is going to happen?
• When: When will or when did the event take place?
• Where: Where will or where did the event happen?
• Why: What is the purpose of the event? Why did this person take part?
• How: How did the person get involved with the organization in question? Think of “how” as a way to give background information.

Obviously you’re not going to be able to get all these in the first sentence, or even the first paragraph of your press release. If you’re not sure what the most important piece of information is, try writing your first sentence six times, each time starting with a different key question to see which one sounds best.

Formatting Is Key in Writing a Press Release

Try to keep your press release to under a page. Reporters are busy, and most of them won’t read more than a few sentences. That’s all they need to know if they are interested in writing about you, calling you for a story or covering your event. And if your release is only one page, you won’t have to worry about the pages getting separated or delivered to two different people.

If you have letterhead for your business, use it for your press release. Or just put your logo at the top of the page. Label it as a press release and type FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE at the top. That means they are free to publish a story about the press release immediately. (Sometimes press releases are embargoed, meaning they are sent out before a big announcement but the company doesn’t want the information released until after the announcement has been made. Reporters are free to write the story, but it can’t be published or appear on the air until the time specified on the release.)

Provide your contact information, including your name, phone number (home, work and/or cell), e-mail address and website. It’s probably not necessary to include your mailing address, unless your news includes an event at that location.

Write a headline that tells what the press release is about, and then write up what’s happening in inverted pyramid style. Make sure you include enough information for the reporter to know if he or she wants to write a story, and give lots of opportunities to contact you.

If you like, end your release with three number signs ###, which is journalist code for “that’s the end.” If you’d like to see a sample press release, check out Press Release Writing.

Positioning Yourself as an Expert

Sometimes its hard to come up with news events, but having articles written about you is great publicity. Another option is to become an expert in your field and make yourself available to journalists as a commentator.

One way you can establish yourself as an expert is to write a book, and writing a book certainly will get you some publicity. But if you don’t have the time or inclination to write a book, look for news events or “hooks” to present to the media and offer to talk about them.

Say you have a custom framing business. In the summer or early fall, you might suggest a story on framing vacation art, which would be timely because lots of people are coming back from vacations and want to know what to do with their photos.

Or if you run a consulting service, perhaps you could offer an article or interview for Kids’ Goal Setting Week, which is in November. Strange holidays are great news hooks because they get the people in the newsroom talking (“I had no idea there was a Music in Our Schools Month. Let’s do a story!”) and they will seek you out as a source because you brought it to their attention. For more holidays and observances you might not have heard of, check out Brownielocks or type "weird holidays" into your favorite search engine.

You can also provide yourself as an expert when news events happen that are somehow related to your business or service. An obvious example is if you’re a grief counselor and there’s a big tragedy in the news, you could speak to the media as an expert in talking to kids about death.

Brainstorm different topics related to your business that you could talk about to the media and look for news hooks that you could alert the media to. Or if you really enjoy writing, you could suggest a regular column to the newspaper or a local magazine. To sweeten the deal, offer to write for free. The publicity involved in regularly getting your name out there as an expert will be worth your time.