Re: News Releases

[Donna Ellis <DLE -at- ALPHA -dot- SUNQUEST -dot- COM>]

Thomas Krueger writes:
I've been asked to develop and distribute news releases . . . I would
appreciate some pointers.

Tom, I have an MA in journalism and work experience in public relations,
so I will take a stab at answering this.

Tips
1. Ask yourself: "What is the most interesting or significant fact
that I want people to know about this product. If I only had 30
seconds to tell someone about this product, what would I say."

2. Make sure you put this fact, and only this fact, into your
first paragraph, along with some source of attribution, such as
", according to company president Bill Gates"
or
", according to studies completed by an independent auditing firm."

3. Be aware that the media consider a news release as an open invitation
to "come see us and write about us."

4. Be aware of and accept the fact that the media want to publish
whatever will catch the attention of their readers, whether or not
it reflects favorably on your company.

5. Be aware that the media are skilled at and will make every attempt
to (if they are good at their jobs) dig up juicy gossip about your
company.

6. If you have any skeletons in the company closet, you might consider
hiring a professional public relations person (someone with experience
in doing #5, who also understands public relations) to handle your relations
with the media.

Have fun! Writing news releases can be very simple if your company is doing
great and has great new products.
7. Let me add one last thing--don't expect the publication to print your
news release verbatim. Most publications have a policy that forbids
reporters to do that. Most publications want their reporters to gather
facts and write their own stories about any subject.

I would be glad to help out in any way.

Donna Ellis
Sunquest Information Systems, Inc
Tucson, AZ
602-570-2196
dle -at- alpha -dot- sunquest -dot- com