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Writing an effective press release
What is a press release?
A press release is a method of announcing anything newsworthy, written by you to send to journalists in the hope that they will publish it or write about the about the subject e.g. the launch of a new product, a new partnership, or a new charity/green initiative.
Many journalists (especially in the national media outlets) will change this draft dramatically before publication. Local press, however with their limited time and financial resources may only change the title if they believe the press release is well-written.
There is no guarantee the press release will make it to publication. So, it is crucial to produce a newsworthy, well-written, interesting document with appropriate visuals (photographs or diagrams), tailored to the individual publications you are sending it to.
Winning journalist's attention: Journalists receive lots of press releases every day. So your first paragraph impacts the over all essence of the story.
Choosing an angle: You should carefully choose an angle for your story. To be most effective, this angle should change by type of media e.g.
- Publication
- Local press
- The human/emotional angle
- The Financial Times
- The financial or the research based/statistical angle
- The Daily Mail
- The current affairs/emotional angle
- The Sun
- New revelation/controversial angle
The press release structure: The key points of the story must be placed in the opening paragraph this includes, who, what, when, where, why, and often how.
The rest of the press release should be written in an "inverted pyramid" format. This means the key information, such as your client hook, is at the top of the article, supplementary information can be included further down the article.
Use a simple press release format (we have attached an example for your reference). Internal contact details, "PRESS RELEASE" written in capital letters and a date of when the press release can by published, must be clearly written at the top, before the press release heading.
Double space your lines, as this allows journalists to quickly add to and edit the document- the easier you make their job, the more likely there are to use your story and pay attention to your future stories.
Keep the article succinct, written in paragraphs of no more than 60 words. Further information, and additional press contact details, can be put in the separate "notes to the editor" section at the end.
Sample of a structure of a typical press release:
Logo of Your Company
Press Release
Date of Issue/
"For Immediate Release"
OR
Embargoed until... desired date
Title:
Needs to be concise and one that attracts attention
Para 1: who, what, when, where, why, (and sometimes how) - the basic structure for the opening sentence, giving a synopsis of the story so the journalist can get all the salient points immediately. Keep it as brief as possible: no more than two sentences in the first paragraph, preferably no longer than 30 words.
Para 2: Give greater detail of the nature of the story and back up the story with facts or statistics (if applicable).
Para 3: A quotation will often be desired by the journalist (they will add human element to the story). Include these in italics and inverted commas, if you are quoting yourself, use the third person of "he" or "she".
Para 4: Elaborate on the details of the upcoming event that you want your public to be aware of: location, time, point of contact etc.
Ending: close your document with either ### or ENDS
Notes to the editor:
Contact details
(your press officer or the agency)
(this is where you can give more specific details to the editor on relevant details such as contact details, a brief synopsis of the company's history, and if you are attaching any visuals (note: compress the size of the picture if the file is very large).
There is no rule on the number of paragraphs to be had in a press release, although brevity is good practice. Avoid superlatives and stick to the facts as best as you can. Ideally, all contents will fit on one sheet of A4 (this will prevent separate pages getting lost); press releases should not exceed two pages.
Remember
As a final thought, when writing any press release, always try and imagine what it must be like to do the journalist's job. Put simply, they are not interested in you: they are interested in the story for their readers.
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