Four rules of press release writing

This post does not claim to be the ultimate truth. Rather, this is an experience that I wanted to share with newcomers to our profession. Because the first 10 links that Google gives tell about the structure of the press release. Structure is an important, but far from primary knowledge for writing a good text. So where do you start writing a press release? I will try to answer this question.

Defining the news event

In my opinion, it is the most important part of the preparation. I often talk to journalists, sometimes over a cup of strong coffee, and notice an interesting tendency. Around 40% of journalists do not understand what our PR specialists want to get across when they read our texts. In other words, what is a global, significant event for us, will prompt their question: ‘What was this story supposed to mean for me and my readers?’

An ideal outcome for a PR specialist is when the text gets published as it is. Why? Because mass media is our key to the castle of public opinion. So, if your text is published without changes, it means your target audience will get everything you wanted to say distortion-free. But it is also possible that our expectations will be shattered by harsh reality. Let me show you an example of how it happens.

The company wrote the news like this:

XYZ Company achieves a 3G speed of 32 Mbps in its office

XYZ Company continues to test 3G in its Kyiv office. The maximum transmission speed achieved during the tests was 32 Mbps

XYZ Company professionals continue to test the third-generation network in the office lab. Tech experts of the 3G office keep studying the equipment’s capabilities and specific features. At this stage of testing, they managed to increase the download speed to 32 Mbps and the upload speed to 5 Mbps.

The media outlet, however, published the news like this:

Groundbreaking 3G speed of 32 Mbps achieved in XYZ Company office

Even though today is not 1 April, XYZ Company reports progress in the preparations to implement 3G in its network. The company says its specialists were able to achieve a download speed of 32 Mbps in laboratory conditions. Perhaps a reliable and stable mobile connection at XYZ Company will increase user satisfaction. We are delighted to learn that XYZ Company already has 3G at its office and the employees can enjoy it. Now you know where to go when you need a stable 3G Internet connection.

In my opinion, it would have been better if the journalist had just deleted the email or sent it to spam than published it like this.

It is the company’s fault, not the journalist’s, because:

• The press release has no news event;
• In most cases, the message gets lost in the abyss of poor writing;
• You should clearly understand the target audience for your news;
• Once you have identified the news event, you may proceed to the next step.
• Identifying the target audience.

Mine is as follows:

• Business journalists
• Public (local communities, activists)
• State authorities
• Analysts
• Partners (competitors)
• Investors

On the whole, I believe this section is the most straightforward, and even newcomers should be able to understand it. No? Here’s a tip: talk to your target audience in a language it can understand.

Communication channels

My bad! I did not always follow good practices: when I started my career in PR, I sent out my press releases to a huge list of people. What profit did I make from that? I am sure it was close to zero. Some accepted and sent follow-up questions, and some asked me to delete them from my mailing list.

You might ask: ‘Why is a big mailing list ineffective?’ After all, the more audience coverage, the better. But not quite: press service should not turn into a spam bot.

After a year of work, I formed a pool of journalists who were actively interested in our company news. This pool included both business and political journalists.

Then I cleaned my mailing list, leaving only those who I worked with. As a result, I got the journalists who were interested in my news. In addition, journalists from that huge mailing list contacted me and asked why the news had disappeared. A little maths: out of 500 recipients, a bit more than 20 asked me to put them back on the list. So what is the takeaway here? My journalist colleagues, I am sorry for not understanding it earlier: rather than comparing the length of your mailing lists, compare its quality. Now, you can move on to the structure of your press release. Since there has been nothing radically new lately, let’s scroll down.

Press release structure

1. The title should be pithy and compel readers to keep reading.

2. The lead must answer the questions: ‘What?’, ‘Where?’, ‘When?’, ‘Who?’, and ‘Why?’

3. The second paragraph should contain more details about the lead, its significance, and contents.

4. The rest is supporting details (facts for the journalist).

5. The quote: choose the right speaker to share an opinion or add emotional colouring.

6. General information or technical details.

Press release length

Opinions on this are mixed. I prefer press releases that take up a single A4 page. Other experts claim that the size does not matter as long as there is no fluff.

These are the key aspects of press release writing that I wanted to share. Comments and constructive criticism are encouraged and welcomed.