What’s in a Press Release?

Most businesses assume that their news items will get into print if they simply hammer away press releases every month and send it to the local papers. Not so!!!

Try these steps for a successful press release that actually may see the light of print.

Formatting

It is important to format your press release according to media needs. The format will allow the media to quickly determine if your press release is publishable or should join the 70% of the releases that end up in trash.

To start with, you should have a real newsworthy announcement to include in the press release. If you do, then read on.

The First line of your release should be FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Second line should include:

Contact: Name

Title:

Tel:

Email

Then comes you headline….bold and capitalized and centered

The first line of your press release should be the dateline…

Portland, ME, —

Followed by the date of the release — which is hopefully the same day as you send the release out.

Portland, ME — January 28, 2007 —

Then comes your first sentence of the release

Portland, ME — January 28, 2007 — The XYO company today announced it will be leaving Portland for Canada by the end of the year to establish a larger manufacturing plant in the province of X in Canada.

To make the news real…put in a statement by a company/organization official on your second paragraph

Then add more information about the newsworthy item.

Finally, you must end the release with the Boiler Plate — the paragraph about the company/organization that explains who you are, when you were established what you do, etc. etc.

About XYO

XYO is the leading manufacturer of …………. Make sure you embed your web site address in this paragraph to allow editors a quick link to your company information.

End your press release with three # # #. This indicates to the editors that they have come to the end of the release.

Then attach a visual — as a jpeg format. You can also embed this into your press release but the media does need a jpeg to be able to publish the image.

Your last step is to distribute the release — make sure you don’t send the release as a Word attachement but in the body of your email. Attachments will most definitely be deleted.

Best of luck………..