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Writing powerful news releases, part two

To succeed, know your agenda, your targets and your plan

by Natalie Canavor and Claire Meirowitz

Are your news releases part of a thought-out media program or just shots in the dark that you pull together when you've got to make an announcement? Do you routinely consider the full range of purposes they can fill? Do you have a system for generating leads for good subjects?

We want to follow up on our last column, which offered some general suggestions for improving your news releases, by talking about these important questions. But first, some words from the best experts we know on the subject.

Eileen Willner and John Mooney of Lewis Associates publish the Lewis Letter on News Writing, a weekly e-letter with an international readership. Here's their take on what’s coming across their desks these days: "News releases are increasingly wordy and disorganized. They seem intended to promote verbiage rather than the company that's paying the writer. Leads are much too long. Jargon is prevalent, and many writers with whom we've spoken aren't sure what it means so they can't translate it into commonly understood words."

How's your lead?

"Chairstuff Inc., the leading online furniture retailer, today declared bankruptcy."

That's a lead Willner and Mooney recall as one of the worst they've seen. "The writer used a standard phrase without considering how inappropriate it was. It typifies how mindlessly clichés get tossed into news releases," Willner says.

"Get rid of jargon and clichés. Use short leads that appeal to the reader's interest," she advises, and notes that ideally, the writer has previously written for a newspaper. If you haven't done that, practice putting yourself in your reader's shoes: Would that lead draw you in to read the rest? If not, what would work?

Go for credibility

Capitalize on credibility from third-party sources. If your widget has been named the "Best New Product of the Year" by a credible organization, by all means put that into your lead. It's the best advertising there is.

Also, make sure that your release answers the reporter's eternal questions: who, what, where, when, how. And if you can sneak "why" into the mix, so much the better. One news editor, Lisa Josefak, told us recently of a release that wasn't used because the company failed to include the location of the charity to which it had made a big donation. "When you have all the information you need on one release and another that you'll have to make some phone calls to complete, and you're on deadline, you usually opt for the one that has all the info," she said.

Why are you writing the release?

The reasons vary according to your organization's nature, but you should consider at least the reasons outlined in the accompanying sidebar, "News releases: Let us count the why's."

Get with the program!

While it may seem that news releases should be sent only when there's something important to say, in fact, virtually every organization has an ongoing story to tell and interesting things happen all the time. The issue is really having the mechanisms and mindset in place to get that information flowing to the communication department.

One of us, while working in-house, was frustrated by the lack of "news" coming to the PR group's attention from the organization's various locations and departments. The solution: a series of in-person meetings at every location, complete with mini-workshops, to explain the advantages of good PR to that unit and what "news" means to the media. We provided cute "Lend Us an Ear" notepads and online forms to make it easy to funnel leads to us.

The result: a river of input to fill our publications as well as news releases. Could we use all of it? Certainly not, but we did provide feedback when possible so people would know what might work better next time. Did everybody get it? Of course not, but many did. Those departments got quick reinforcement by seeing results, and some other units got the idea and began participating competitively. Was this whole process time-consuming? You bet. But worth it.

Here's why: The underlying agenda of your news releases is always to portray your organization as an innovative, savvy, active, up-to-the-minute, responsive, honest, human, credible, winning company or nonprofit. In addition, you have core messages that relate to the organization's main business (and to which your releases should relate).

A media program, as opposed to a random series of sporadic news releases, explores all the possibilities for reaching important audiences with the image and messages you want to communicate. In addition to charting factors like who you want to reach and what you want them to know, you need to analyze what media outlets will work, what opportunities you can anticipate during the year ahead, and how releases should coordinate with other marketing initiatives. A good program takes planning, and it takes a lot of input from the field to give you subject matter.

Even if you own your own business or are a one-person shop, don't overlook ways of using press releases as a major promotional tool — to announce that you have formed the company, are offering a new service, have acquired a major account, etc. Or how about if you've won an award, joined a nonprofit board or contributed important pro bono work? Your local weekly at least may be interested, and so may a regional business publication. Communicators so often fail to trumpet their own successes. We should know better.

Don't be afraid of setting a minimum number of releases per week or month, and be determined to meet the goal. You'll find the subjects. And you need not fear bombarding the same outlets all the time, because as soon as you start planning a media program you'll discover more target vehicles for different kinds of news. You'll also find that your releases begin to connect more directly to basic organizational goals and even to the bottom line. Never a bad thing.

After the release: now what?

1. Get your ducks in a row. Brainstorm with colleagues to list all of the questions reporters might ask. Find the answers and keep them near both your office phone and cell phone.

2. Make lists of people to be interviewed as relevant to the subject. Find out whether and when they’ll be available. Ask whether they need to receive the reporters’ questions beforehand. Work with them if necessary.

3. At the event, be prepared — with fact sheets, company backgrounder, definitions, etc. Round up the people to be interviewed and prepare them for questions the reporter might ask. Also prep the probable interviewees with the interview's objective—why this story is important to your organization or company—and get a solid idea of what they'll say. One of us once succeeded in attracting a television crew to a new high school technology program—no easy feat. We didn't talk to the teacher about what he would say on camera, assuming he knew his subject cold. As the crew was setting up, he remarked that he would explain he was teaching the same old electronics material he'd been teaching for 20 years, gussied up in high-tech language. An unprepared administrator had to be recruited for the role of spokesperson on the spot.

What to do with the results?

Use them! Post the published interview or story on your web site and your company intranet, print it in your newsletter, add it to the company’s blog, circulate it to your officers and board of directors, shareholders or sponsors, donors, employees and any other group that might be helpful to your cause or product. Consider running an ad containing the information, or podcasting it.

Some of the sharpest PR people we know think of events simply as excuses to create great press releases. They'll even create an event (or at least tailor it) to justify a release and media interest. It's not a bad way to think.

Let us know of other creative ways you use news releases. We'd love to hear your ideas.