September 25, 2007
This article originally appeared in the Editorial Advantage newsletter.
Press Release Basics
© Ruth E. Thaler-Carter
News from (logo and organization name/letterhead)
For immediate release Contact: Name, Title
Phone: …
E-mail: …
News releases should have headlines
Heads should be bold and lowercase except for
ACRONYMS and first letter of first word or Proper Names
Dateline (City, ST, USA) isn’t essential—Double-space; upper- and lowercase type. DO NOT USE ALL-CAPS!!! For the look and style that will get published or at least pique a reporter’s interest, just take a look at the daily newspaper. There is a lot of variety in headline style, but you won’t see many all-caps heads, and you won’t see any all-caps articles. Community weeklies don’t count as style guides.
No more than two double-spaced, single-sided pages. If necessary, make margins tighter, or type smaller to fit into that limit.
Print releases should use indents for each paragraph and not skip lines between grafs. Releases sent as e-mail messages (not attachments) may be flush left (no indents), skip a line after each graf and be single-spaced.
Use third person for the most part. Humor is OK.
Start your news/press release off with real news:
Nonprofit organizations can beef up the skills and strengths of their staff and services through an invaluable range of training sessions from the Pratt Library, this spring.
Or
Baltimore’s Pratt Library will hold an exciting range of training sessions for all levels of nonprofit staffs from January through May.
Don’t open with a date (unless immediately identifiable and evocative – Dec. 7, Sept. 11).
Put–more–at the end of a first page if there’s a second page
Put the “meat”—topic or name of a renowned speaker—first, then date, time and place: Joe Doaks, webmaster supreme, will offer the best ways to profit from the Internet at the August 2005 meeting of the Webheads. His session will be held from 10 a.m.–noon on Wednesday, February 10, at the X Hotel in Baltimore, MD.
Or
Get the most out of your investment in technology—don’t miss “Mastering the Internet,” the exciting presentation by webmaster supreme Joe Doaks on August 1 at the Baltimore Hilton.
“I know it all,” said Doaks — follow up with an interesting quote to enhance and expand on the intro.
Use the active voice, and make sure it is clear why your event or announcement is of interest.
Only send releases by e-mail after making sure recipients want them that way.
Don’t bug editors or reporters to find out if they got your release or are going to use it. If you provide newsworthy info, it will get into print somewhere.
Put a short “boilerplate” (standard) sentence describing your organization at the end of every release. This can be in smaller type than the body of the release.
Check and re-check mailing lists constantly to save money and maximize results.
End with ###
Posted in Marketing and promotion