Words that Repel Reporters (Let us Count the Ways)

79 responses to “Words that Repel Reporters (Let us Count the Ways)”

1. Some journos are not much better. Far too many building trade headlines use the words ‘scoop’ ‘bag’and ‘slate’ to try to generate excitement for an otherwise boring story.

2. This is an old complaint, but people still begin releases with, “Beauregard Smith, President/CEO of ABC Company, is pleased/proud/excited to announce . . .” Years ago, an editor told me that, if the name if the CEO (or company) is more important than the news itself, that news isn’t worth reading. That’s still true. In a lead sentence, every word has to justify its placement.

3. Impactful. *shudders*

4. Speaking of “unparalleled,” I once received a letter from Bacon’s clipping service touting their “unparalled” accuracy. They didn’t include spelling accuracy, I guess.

5. “First annual”

   Institutions do not have feelings. People do.

6. The key to getting a press release covered is for it to not SOUND like a press release. Don’t write with the exclusive goal of making your client happy; write for the reporter’s audience. That means you need to give the public a reason to care about what you are telling them. You can do this by focusing on people or institutions that will be helped as a result of whatever action precipitated the release. We are all so overcommunicated now, it’s easy to let the ‘ignore’ filters kick in. Resetting that particular ‘circuit breaker’ is essential, and you do it by giving the reader a reason to care. Two books you should always keep close at hand are Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and Herschel G. Lewis’s “On the Art Of Writing Copy”. I have found these two books to be immensely helpful (the contents of Strunk and White’s book are also available online).

7. Perhaps an article on words that might be encouraged would be more educational! Very hard to second-guess all of people’s pet prejudices! (And I admit to many!)

8. While we are discussing overused phrases, how about the misuse of “comprise” as in “…is comprised of”? “Comprise” is a concise, transitive verb, meaning “include”. You can’t say “something is included of”, but you can say something comprises…”

9. Consider substituting most laudatory adjectives/phrasingwith facts, which when accurate tend to speak for themselves. Using the facts instead should also lead to shorter, more impactful copy. Award committees, like those parties who would publish stories, want more with less.

10. “iconic”

    rarely true.

11. You have a point, Julia C. So many words to leave out – sooooo, what to leave in? Still, this is great info. Thanks.

12. There’s always “state of the art” and “innovative.”

    Along with “we are excited,” I’d add:
    “we’re proud”
    “we’re thrilled”
    “we’re honored”

13. To: Mark Riley: My client’s tell me that I write like I talk: from the heart. I do not like cliches, especially, ‘trust me.’ Of course when we write press releases, we must provide the story and or details in a way that the media and or reporter will care and be interested. Thank you very much for your suggestions and the books. I feel positive and motivated to change some of my style. Happy New Year.

14. My Favourite is when a deal in clinched and firms say they have just achieved a record ‘win’. Where did that one come from?

15. But we are very excited to have worked to secure engagements in the fastest-growing market of high-performance technology leading to incredibly powerful solutions with unparalleled resource utilization.

16. How about “outside the box?” If everything is outside the box, is there anything of substance in the box? And, if not, why have a box at all?

17. If I was a techie type I’d invent a software called ‘delete delight’. Most press releases in Scotland use the words ‘We’re delighted to announce . . .’ (insert some some footling piece of new business). We’re all pleased when we win new business, but press releases would increase their chances of publication if they told us something about what the latest deal means for the market, rather than the boost it gave to the MD’s ego.

18. All of the above are right on the money. IMO, too too many PR people cave in to their clients’ trite demands, often copying what others have done, not realizing they’re insulting media who have to read these releases, demeaning themselves through a lack of backbone, if not professional standards and ethics. Anyone can write a basic PR by the numbers, falling back on “say nothing” words and phrases – and hyperbole. I cannot tell you how many itmes clients have tried to force me into using “We are thrilled” or “We are excited” and make every effort to strike any color from their quotes. Client quotes, for example, can be an excellent way to further explain your “news” story, give color and turn that quote potentially into a possible sound bite, the last often appreciated by a number of reporters and editors I deal with. So, going forward, be the first to announce, stand up and be unsurpassed, incredible, impactful, award-winning, the world’s leading, fastest-growing, powerful, unparalleled, high-performance solution delivering a new paradigm never before seen anywhere in the world. Happy New Year.

19. industry-leading, win-win, left of hyphen-right of hyphen.

    I am an ex-broadcast guy but print style seems best suited for releases: the graph is the W’s, and whatever follows is the details.

    If the reader is not interested by the beginning, what follows is immaterial. Am I wrong?

20. “Revolutionary”

21. Totally agree and exasperating. Every single release from one particular airline’s opening sentence starts with “……”, the fastest growing airline. Another word I would like to add a consistent word used by hoteliers ‘mouth-watering’. Regarding a minor achievement the consistent phrase: ‘in the history of…’

22. Marty Rabkin (post #68) is correct. PR professionals, many of whom have journalism backgrounds, need to take the time to put some originality into their words, even if it’s an everyday press release. And likewise, someone one the other end should be skilled enough to edit out the BS, redundancies and overused phrases.

23. Unique, game-changing, at the end of the day, very (anything), anything that provides an undefined qualifier (very happy, etc.)

24. Moving forward. Please, please, please stop using this term.

25. Innovative, disruptive.

26. We have a process called Meaning Mapping where we take a document (release, article, book, speech, etc. and document the core meaning of it. How many of these words do you think end up on the ‘core meaning’ result? Nearly zero, that’s right.
    And that is just what people do with fluff, jargon and cliches. They look for meaning and if they dont get it, will eventually add you to the spam filter.

27. My favourite is the press release with one or more acronym that are not even fully extended in the first instance – never assume knowledge

28. Here’s the words so far not to use…
    What patterns are there here?
    1. right-sizing means layoffs or firings
    2. solution
    3. leverage
    4. authentic
    5. breakthrough
    6. today, as in announced today
    7. seamless
    8. end-to-end
    9. meeting customers specific needs
    10. disruptive
    11. most unique
    12. we are excited
    13. truly innovative
    14. added value
    15. exciting
    16. amazing
    17. we’ll get back to you on that
    18. synergy
    19. win-win
    20. revolutionary
    21. cutting edge
    22. forget press releases, use target story pitches
    23. thrilled
    24. meaningless quote
    25. awesome
    26. as the …
    27. we’re delighted
    28. (undefined terms and acronyms)
    The LinkedIn article where this was referenced had another 187 comments. Want to see their list?

29. “with the request to publish it”, sometimes there are still PR using this absurd sentence