Write News Releases for the Media,
Not your Client

by Bill Bradley Principal,
Bottom Line Communications

Most PR professionals consider themselves to be skilled writers in the honored tradition of journalism. But occasionally we get careless (or lazy), or allow an overbearing client to get us to compromise our normally high standards of proper news writing.

Remember who your audience is: the media, not your client. Journalists just want the facts, not a sales pitch; yet many news releases continue to read more like the client's marketing collateral than the expected "5Ws and the H." Trade jargon overpowers understandable English, sweeping adjectives and claims essentially promise to end world hunger, and every company is suddenly an "industry leader with world-class technology." No wonder journalists put so little faith in what they read in news releases. (For guidance on stopping high-tech trash talking and gratuitous PR hyperbole, go to www.buzzkiller.net.)

Whatever the excuse (and because even Tiger Woods misses a short putt sometimes), it's always good to review the fundamentals of good news release writing. And yes, I prefer to say "news" release Ð not "press" release -- because that gets you thinking straight right away. The document you're preparing is supposed to convey legitimate news, not a vanity piece for your client or some contrived story for "the press." The first step, therefore, is to recognize that you're about to create something newsworthy, something important. In the media's mind, it should change how they look at your client in some positive manner. If you don't feel this way at the beginning of the process, then don't waste your time (or the media's) in going any further.

Of course you're going ahead, so what follows is a primer on the essentials of news releases writing: the headline, deck-head, lead paragraph, proof statements, quotes, length, boilerplate and some general guidelines on formatting and conformance to AP style.

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