Perfect Ways in Writing Newsworthy Press Release

One major challenge most Spokespersons, especially Public Relations Officers face in their daily communicating with the media is on how to craft a perfect and newsworthy press release that could attract the attention of editors.

The Nigeria’s popular press release platform PRNigeria  provides publishes different types of news releases from various organisations including the security sectors. While the PRNigeria management is not responsible for editing most of the Press Releases signed by respective spokespersons, some releases are quite outstanding in newsworthiness while others are mere egocentric marketing stuffs.

Breonna Bergstrom, a Content Writer for CoSchedule  explains that news releases are usually one or two-page documents that share breaking news with the public. They emulate a news article format, using the reverse pyramid to place the most important information first. The releases are typically read by journalists, but sometimes general audiences might stumble upon them, too.

Organizations of all sizes use press releases to achieve all sorts of goals. Some common objectives of press releases are to get media coverage, build your brand’s reputation, manage a crisis, build back links from trusted media sites and as a cost-effective way to market the organization. A well-written press release can help garner public attention due to news coverage.

Meanwhile, MaryBeth Matzek provides tips for Writing a Press Release Effectively. Some of the tips include Writing a good headline, Start off right, providing the lead, using the the Five Ws and H (What, Where, Who, When, Why, How), applying the right style.

Write a press release as a news story. Keep sentences short and simple. Don’t use jargon or terms that the average person wouldn’t understand. Focus on facts and information—remember you want the reporter receiving your press release to understand it’s news. Another key element—be sure to run a spell check and read it thoroughly before sending. Reporters will immediately hit the delete button if they get a release full of errors.

A Senior Content Specialist with Cision PR Newswire, Maureen Beard, , provides further insight in press release writings.

She advised that for a perfect press release, it should start with a relevant, newsworthy topic. According to her, for anyone to pay attention to a press release, it needs to have a news angle.

“Before you start writing, ask yourself: Why will the audience care about this story? Is this story relevant to my target audience?”

She said it’s important to remember that a press release is an official statement provided to the media as well as current and potential customers. Therefore, you need to focus on writing about a relevant and newsworthy topic.

Even in the digital age, the media still counts on press releases for pulling story ideas. But, now more than ever, they’re short on time and need content that is clear and concise. Always give the why in the first sentence. Then, follow closely behind with the who, what, when, and where.

Making sure to draw attention to why the news is essential increases your chance of media pick-up. Most of the time, the media ignores your press release because you buried the lead.

Some noteworthy press release topics include Product launch, recruitment of new management, awards and recognition, hosting of events and crisis management

As you consider these common press release topics, also consider unique approaches to them that will make them more relevant and newsworthy to your audience.

Most editors like headlines that provides figures because people respond to numbers and encourage engagements on social media.

Similarly, while action words like verbs in the headline gives a sense of urgency and grabs the attention of readers, adjectives provide descriptors that give the headline a boost to make them attractive to the target audience.

Adding a quote from a reliable and knowledgeable source gives sense of authority and legitimacy to the press release.  Quotes can come from the Chief Executive Officer, Specialists, Clients/Customers.

In all of these, a good press release should be kept short as readers want concise and clear content.