Write Mindset » Journalism

How to write a press release: don’t

Simon — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:19:33 +0000

The secret to writing a great press release is simple: don’t.

Don’t set out to write a press release. Create an article, one that will grab the attention of the readership you are targeting.

You don’t have to actually write the whole thing, but you need an idea for an article, you need a story or idea that will grab those readers.

Once you’ve done that, selling the idea to the media should be a piece of cake. Because you are giving them what they are really looking for, which is content that will appeal to their readers.

Don’t set out to write a press release. Create an article, direct for the end readership you are targeting.

If you can make this leap, to stop thinking about what you want to say, not even thinking about the journalist, but think about what the reader of the newspaper or magazine might be interested in, then you have material which can make for an excellent press release.

If a journalist or editor picks up your press release, and immediately sees something which he knows will interest his readers, then you have a hit. If not, it will be discarded.

So, ideally you need to come up with a targeted press release for a particular publication. Clearly, this is not always possible because of time constraints. The more you target your press releases, however, the more likely they are to be used.

Once you’ve got a killer idea, you now need to make life as easy as possible for the journalists and editors, by giving all the information they want and need, with none of fluff and blatant self-promotion that they loathe.

The easier you make it for a journalist or editor to use your press release, the more likely they are to include it in their publication. So, if you’ve included all the information they need; you’ve quoted someone, supplied their name and details; and given any other supporting information, they might be able to write up your press release without having to do interviews or make follow-up phone calls.

In a busy news room, such as those typically found on a local paper, or trade publication, this can make all the difference between having your press release used, and having it thrown in the bin, or put into a pile of papers never to be seen again.

You should also aim to write your press release in the style of the publication you are targeting as much as possible – since this makes life easier for the hard-pressed journalist. If your copy is good enough that they can use it as it is, then they might just do so. That means you get your words going directly into their publication. And that’s a good thing.

What to include in a Press Release

Attention grabbing headline

Include a headline, one that sums up the story as a whole. It doesn’t have to be a work of genius, as the publication will not want to use your headline (in case someone else does the same thing – and partly out of professional pride). Make it no more than five or six words if possible.

A first paragraph that sums it all up

Tell the whole story in the first paragraph. Of course you can’t include everything. But give the major overview. If this was the only sentence you could include – what would you say?

Tell the story

Get as much narrative and story-telling elements into your press release as possible.

Back it up

Use facts and figures to back up your headline and first paragraph. Give them all the relevant facts.

Provide quotes

Quote at least one person, preferably more. Make the quotes read like something someone would actually say. Make them conversational. Provide the name of the speaker, their job title, and any other relevant information. (You may even need to include their age – newspapers are obsessed with people’s ages – and even their marital status: is she a Miss, a Mrs or a Ms?)

Provide a contact

If the journalist wants extra information or additional quotes, they will need to able to get hold of someone, often in a hurry. They don’t want to hang around for days. They want to get if off their desk, one way or another. That means turning it into copy or putting it in the bin. So make sure they can get to speak to someone if and when they need to.

Notes to Editors

This is a place you can dump the more boring or background information, so that it won’t detract from the impact of the story.

Think of the reader, not yourself, and not the reporter

Most importantly of all, remember to include the information that will engage and interest the reader, and leave out the inward looking internal focus stuff, the things the boss wants everyone to hear even though they’re not interested. Get to the heart of the story, the thing that will grab the attention of your target audience. That is the sure fire way to grab the attention of an editor or journalist.

Photo: Newsstand, from New York Public Library. Photographer – Berenice Abbott, 1935. Via Flickr.

Why don’t newspaper journalists get to the point?

Simon — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:12:10 +0000

Is print newspaper journalism too long, too florid, too full of conventions compared to leaner, sharper online writing?

Is traditional newspaper journalism doomed? Is the style of writing itself one of the reasons for the decline of newspapers? Is that why people often prefer to get their news online – because it’s better written?

There’s an article in The Atlantic magazine online here, which says online writing is much simpler, more straight-forward, and gets to the point much faster than traditional print journalism. The whole article is worth a read, because the author back up this assertion with some convincing detail and evidence.

ONE REASON SEEKERS of news are abandoning print newspapers for the Internet has nothing directly to do with technology. It’s that newspaper articles are too long. On the Internet, news articles get to the point. Newspaper writing, by contrast, is encrusted with conventions that don’t add to your understanding of the news. Newspaper writers are not to blame. These conventions are traditional, even mandatory.

Now, I’m from the UK where our newspapers tend to be a bit less formal in their writing style than those in the USA. That’s a pretty sweeping generalisation, I know, and might take some people by surprise. But I think it’s the case.

Nonetheless, I think the writer of the piece in The Atlantic has nailed something pretty important. He analyses a report in the New York Times, and shows clearly just how verbose it is, how long it takes to really get to the point, how many words are wasted justifying things unnecessarily.

In the newspaper article. people you have never heard of are quoted, yet explaining who they are takes up more room than what they have to say. There is hype all over the place. The reader is constantly being reminded of things they must surely already know, and the article is packed with ‘florid subordinate clauses’.

You look at the style of online writing, especially in blogs, and you see something very different.

Online writers tend to get straight to the point, be clear what they are writing about, kill all those ‘florid subordinate clauses’ and pack articles with useful information.

Blog writers, of course, are free to put forward their own opinions, rather than having to quote those of others.

And blog writers don’t have to write 1,000 words where 500 will do, just to fill a space.

The summary of The Atlantic article is itself pretty succinct: ‘newspaper articles are too long.’

Is it time for the newspaper industry to take stock, learn some lessons from the blogosphere?

Are the conventions and traditions of print journalism holding it back, and contributing to its demise?

I’d love to hear you opinions.

If newspapers disappeared tomorrow, would you care? Would you notice?

Simon — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:06:45 +0000

Those of you who work in journalism, or intend to, or who even simply read newspapers might be interested in a damning critique of the press over at Rogue Columnist.

It’s been a while since I worked in newspapers in-house myself. And then was in the UK, not in the USA, But I have to say, it all rang true to me:

“Significantly, investment in the unique intellectual capital of newspapers – journalism – was constantly reduced. Newsrooms lost much of their top talent. Marketing, more important than ever in business, was never a newspaper strength, and was cut to the bone. Research and development received little more than lip service, or was another tool to hand down demands for shorter, dumber, fluffier stories.”

It’s very serious piece about the dumbing down of the newspaper industry, the undermining of serious journalism, and the effects this is having on American society.

However, you know how it is when you read something that hits the spot because it’s just so true, because it hits the nail on the head. You have to laugh:

“The biggest problem, of course, had nothing to do with the newsrooms. It was the collapse of an unsustainable business model. Simply put, the model involved sending miniskirted saleswomen out to sell ads at confiscatory rates to lecherous old car dealers and appliance-store owners.”

Yes, that’s exactly what was going on at several of the newspapers I worked on. That was their business model.

But now that Google has virtually taken over the world of advertising, I’m not convinced the majority of newspapers, especially local ones, can survive much longer.

And you know what? I don’t think I even care. Newspapers have dumbed down so much most of them have become pointless anyway. If there’s a need for serious journalism, I think the internet will have to meet that need, somehow. How that will happen, I’m not sure.

But I know for my part I don’t read newspapers anymore. I don’t have time. If I want topical, there’s the internet. If I want something more thoughtful or enduring, then I have piles of books to read.

What do you think? Have newspapers got much of a future? And do you even care?

Who reads the second paragraph? Lessons in writing from Lemmon and Matthau

Simon — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:42:09 +0000

Journalists summarise the whole story in the first paragraph, and expand on the detail as they go along. So the most important and interesting stuff is at the top, and the fluff that is less useful or intriguing goes towards the end.

“The second paragraph? Who reads the second paragraph?”

There, I’ve gone and done it myself and now you don’t need to read the rest of this post. But wait… don’t go. There’s more you need to know first.

Until I decided to demonstrate this technique, with the first paragraph of this post, I was intending to start with a little reminiscence about a great movie from 1974 called The Front Page. It stars Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon as the editor and reporter in a 1920s Chicago newspaper.

At one point, Lemmon, the intrepid reporter, is filing copy about a notoriously dangerous criminal who has broken out of jail and stolen a gun. He’s on the loose, on the prison roof.

“Where’s the bit about the gun?”

Reading the copy, Matthau asks something along the lines of: “Where’s the bit about the gun?”

(I’m doing this from memory, as I don’t have a copy of the film to hand).

Lemmon replies: “It’s in the second paragraph.”

To which Matthau, the editor, says: “The second paragraph? Who reads the second paragraph?”

And it’s all there, in that one-liner – just about everything you need to know about writing in the newspaper style. It’s an education in journalism, all by itself.

Building the inverted pyramid – one brick at a time

Most of us skip through newspapers and magazines, scanning the headlines, and reading the odd paragraph here and there. Hardly anyone ever reads the whole of a newspaper article. That’s one good reason to write in what is sometimes called the inverted pyramid style.

Daily writing tips has a great summary of the inverted pyramid, with this at it’s heart:

Using the inverted pyramid means starting with the most important information, then putting the next most important info and so on. It can also serve as a guide for writing each paragraph in the story. Start with the most important point, then the next most important and so on.

This style of writing makes it much easier to cut stories to the right length, which is one of the reasons it originated in the newspaper world. If any words need to come out, cut from the bottom. There shouldn’t be anything there which is essential. Newspaper articles don’t have great endings or conclusions. They just tail off and wither away.

Now, you won’t always want to write in this way. There are lots of good reasons for trying to hang on to your readers and keep them with you to the end.

there’s a gun that’s about to go off

But knowing how to write in this news style is extremely useful. It could certainly be promoted more in business. It’s useful in copywriting too, where you need to make the whole sale in the headline, or maybe the first paragraph of copy.

And it’s always worth remembering that if you don’t grab your reader with the first paragraph, they are very unlikely to read the second. So if there’s a gun that’s about to go off, make sure you mention it right there at the top of the story.