(In this new column, PR News calls on leading experts to provide their professional advice to help junior level PR planners reach their fullest potential - while
perhaps aiding some senior level executives to brush up on rusty skills. This week, the focus is on the basic foundation of PR - the press release. Here are 10 steps to ensure
both the text and message of a press release is rapier-sharp and laser-focused.)
1. Make sure you are presenting information of genuine worth. "Ask yourself: Who
is the audience and what message does the company need to convey?" says Chris Hammond, vice president for communications and development at Wells Fargo. "In a clear and
concise way, help the news editors understand why your release is of interest. Is it part of a trend? Is it news? Why are you sending it now?"
2. Don't mistake a press release for an advertisement. "Avoid blatant commercialism," says Eshe Glover, president of Ag Event Design in Charlotte, NC. "Don't
use clichéd words and phrases such as spectacular, incredible, the only one of its kind, breakthrough, cutting-edge, unique and state-of-the-art. If you have to resort to
commercialism to sell your product or service, you need to rethink whether you should send the news release."
3. Don't think one-size-fits-all. The proliferation of media sources and the varying styles between the different formats may dictate the need to create alternative
versions of the news release in order to penetrate the different media. "Make sure to craft your release appropriately for the target audience," says Mark H. Mahoney, president
of M2 Public Relations, Whitefish Bay, WI. "Newspapers, trade publications and online media all require different types of information, sometimes in different formats.
Always write to your audience."
4. Keep it short and succinct. A press release should be no more than two pages. Anything longer is a short story and the people receiving press releases don't have
time for short stories. "If you don't say it in the first sentence then don't bother, as I have already stopped reading," says Matthew Papertsian, North America marketing
director for Cartesis, a performance business management software vendor in Norwalk, CT. "Furthermore, do not use too many words to get to the punch line - people receive
immense amounts of data but skim very quickly to find what they believe is interesting."
5. Make the heading relevant. "It is important that your heading have impact and explain what the release is about," says Tom Holt, president of Holt
Communications, Elkhart, IN. "With today's preferred delivery method of releases being via e-mail, the heading is sometimes the only thing that will grab the attention of the
editor or reporter. I have also found it useful to use a subhead to go into even more detail; that way a journalist can make a decision on whether the release is relevant to
their beat or subject area without reading the whole release."
6. Be careful and clever with quotes. Quotes that appear in press releases rarely turn up verbatim (if at all) in the high-level media outlets, so don't waste space
with verbiage that is only going to be ignored. If you are going to run a quote, aim for something that does not come across as self-serving. "If it's appropriate to your
business, seek out a quote from a credible third-party who supports the point you're trying to make, and include it in your release," advises Lori Grey, senior manager of national
public relations (community involvement), Deloitte Services LP, New York.
7. Do the reporter's job for them. "Think about additional information that may help the reporter when doing the story," says Brandi North-Williams, public information
officer for the City of Charlotte (NC) Solid Waste Services. "Provide as much information in the release - statistics, quotes, etc. - to help support the potential story.
If you make it easy for the reporter by giving them support information and showing them how the story impacts their readers, it is more likely to get published."
8. Keep the boilerplate to a minimum. This part of the press release is not going to appear in any news coverage, so don't overload the text. "A corporate boilerplate
should be kept to one paragraph and include a brief company description along with information such as when the company was established, number of offices it operates and contact
and Web site information," says Suzanne Dorn, senior vice president, Middleton & Gendron, New York.
9. Give a tag-team of contacts. Unless you are running a one-person shop, always follow the example of companies like the Hilton Hotels Corp. and put a pair of
contact people on the release. Andy Keown, coordinator for corporate communications and Hilton Brand PR, notes having more than one contact will assist journalists in the event
one of the contacts is out of the office and not checking messages. When Hilton is debuting a hotel, the press announcement also includes a local PR contact at the new property.
"This works well for us," says Keown. "When we use a local contact, we feel those people know the property better than those of us back in the corporate office."
10. Check and double check. Before any press release is distributed, be certain it is both spell and fact checked. "Oh, boy, is that absolutely critical," declares
Steve Lubetkin, president of Lubetkin & Co. Communications, Cherry Hill, NJ, who adds it is important to print out and read the text because computer spell checking is
fallible. "With the phrase 'public relations' the 'L' in the first word has a way of disappearing and not being caught by a computer spell check. And fact checking is really
critical, especially when you have corporate executives who really want to juice the facts."
And as for dealing with the juice-eager executives...well, that's another column.
Contacts: Chris Hammond, [email protected]; Eshe Glover, [email protected]; Mark H. Mahoney, [email protected]; Matthew Papertsian, [email protected]; Tom Holt, [email protected]; Lori Grey, [email protected]; Brandi North-Williams, [email protected]; Suzanne Dorn, [email protected]; Andy Keown, [email protected]; Steve Lubetkin, [email protected].