Writing

Sometimes the most difficult parts of PR crisis management are the basics, when and if to react to something and what to say. The billionaire owner of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots provides fresh evidence as he and his entourage mangle the sex scandal he’s battling. Was issuing an inauthentic apology the way to go?

It’s no big secret that public relations professionals often do all the leg work on press releases, including writing and suggesting quotes for executives’ approval. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind while crafting or communicating these scripted soundbites.

Asking the questions ‘So What? Why Now?’ when you’re writing a pitch or a press release was just one of many tips offered during PR News’ Writing Workshop March 15, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Others included the importance of grammar and excessive proofreading-one former journalist said she used to discard pitches that contained typos and poor grammar.

With March Madness permeating the zeitgeist in a few weeks, we asked some of the 2018 PR News Rising PR Stars to answer our roundtable questions this month. We asked, “What gets you mad about PR and communications?” And, “What can be done about it?” Their edited responses follow.

The keys to improving your client communications, writes Ryan George, assistant VP of marketing and communications at the wealth management firm 1st Global, are relevance, empathy, specificity and timeliness, or REST. These tips will awaken the messages you send to your target audience.

2019 brought new regulations, including one that requires hospitals to post online their standard prices. Unfortunately, the goal of transparency in hospital pricing is still a long way off. There are, though, takeaways that communicators in all fields can learn from this issue.

A woman of many talents, ESPN’s Hannah Storm discusses visual storytelling and her work as a film director/producer and the founder of a charitable foundation in this brief video.

Here are a dozen words or phrases to avoid, words and phrases that tend to turn off recipients of a press release—ultimately relegating your pitch to the unenviable circular file.

Entering for industry awards is often a major part of PR professionals’ work, but it poses significant challenges. How do you ensure your entry copy will stand out among a slew of other awards entries? And how to best discern exactly what judges are looking for? Lucky for you, the PR News editorial team judges its fair share of industry awards each year, and offers up the following tips for strengthening your industry awards entries.

Communicators and marketers often devote a lot of effort to choosing the right words to use in their messages. While words matter, there is an argument or two to be made for also considering the heart when creating a message. And believe it or not, emotion counts when creating messages for both B2C and B2B audiences.