Writing Press Releases - Getting it right
By: Wadsworth
A good news release consists of a short introduction. Journalists call this an ‘intro’. This should total perhaps no more than 25 words. Bear in mind that your text needs to answer the ‘six salient questions’: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How? Your intro will cover most but not necessarily all of them. Keep your article short and simple (Kiss). Remember, news is something new and unusual (see Galtung and Ruge, ‘News Values’ in Wikipedia).
The second sentence or ‘lock-in’ builds on the news in the intro. By paragraph three you will probably use the best or ‘killer’ quote from the main source for your story. Always attribute a quote to somebody.
1. A news item should be in a readable font size, usually 12 point Arial or Times Roman and double-spaced.
2. The article should be given a unique keyword to identify it. This is called a ‘catchline’. For example, an article about a poisonous snake sent, undetected in the post, might be catchlined “snake” and each page of the news release then numbered Snake…1, Snake…2 etc. This information is placed in the top right-hand corner of every page.
Do not use: 1. A subject’s name, i.e. Blair, because, if they are famous, there could be lots of stories about them in one day, or the name could be confused for that of a fellow journalist. Or, a word so general, like health, that there might be many stories on the subject similarly catchlined. A good catchline will ensure that every page of your news release can be easily identified in a busy media office.
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