How to Write a Press Release
Newsworthy Information Creates Awarness About Company Products
May 4, 2008
Press releases are an important weapon in the public relations arsenal. Practitioners use them to create awareness about services, products, events, awards and anything else they feel the public needs to know about their organization.
Press releases are also cost and time effective because they are usually emailed to the media. Most importantly, when the media picks up your release and uses part of it in an article, you client gains credibility.
The general public doesn’t realize that many news stories are generated from press releases. Because the press release is an efficient way to garner publicity, almost every company releases them to the media. Journalists often receive hundreds each week, so it is important that your release breaks through the clutter. Send the appropriate media timely, newsworthy information, using the standard news format and your release has a better chance of getting out to the public.
Company Information
First, you should create a standard template with your company logo, address, phone number and web address.
Contact Information
You should also include information for reaching the contact person within the organization, usually the public relations professional writing the release. List the contact person’s name, company, phone number and email address. If the company is using an outside PR agency, include the same information for the contact person within the agency.
Release Date
The words “Press Release” should appear at the top of the page to identify the notice as such to the media. Traditional releases also include the words “for immediate release” although this is usually assumed. If you don’t want the information released immediately, include the date for release (i.e. for release after noon on January 3).
Headline
The headline should sum-up the entire release. It needs to grab the attention of the media using just a few words. Remember, journalists are looking through many releases and don’t have time to read every word of every release. The headline will probably determine if your release gets deleted or saved. Headlines are written in active present tense and bolded in all capital letters.
Dateline
Directly after the headline, the dateline begins the first paragraph. It is written in bold with the name of the city in all caps (and the name of the state in lowercase if the city is not well-known) followed by the date.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. July 10, 2000 – lead sentence, lead sentence, lead sentence, lead
Lead
The lead sentence is the first sentence of the release. Use a simple and short declarative sentence to communicate the most important information within the release. Concentrate on answering who, what, when, where and how. It’s nearly impossible to answer each of these questions in a sentence or two (and still keep it simple), so concentrate on the most important elements to your particular story.
Body
Use inverted pyramid style (the standard for news stories) when writing you release. Address the information from most important to least important. The most recent information goes first and the background goes last. Most people don’t read an entire story, so you want to make sure they don’t miss the best and most relevant information. Press releases are also written in Associated Press (AP) style, which is the standard for newspapers.
Page Numbers
Your release should be as short as possible, usually one or two pages. If you have a multiple page document, at the bottom of the first page write –more- to signal the additional page. You should also carry the headline to the next page. At the end of your last page write ###.
Boilerplate
The boilerplate gives additional information about the company and appears at the bottom of the last page of each release.
