Tools 2: How to Write a Media Release Introduction

144 Part 2: Media Institutions
Tools 2:
How to Write a Media Release
Liz Tynan
Introduction
Public relations practitioners, whatever else they do, are primarily in the business of information
flow: they move information around various audiences (often referred to as ‘publics’). Given the
extent of this activity throughout Western society, the best PR
Media release: a document
people have it in their interests to make sure that the informawritten by a public relations
tion they provide is presented efficiently and instantly usable by
practitioner in journalistic style
that provides a story intended
its recipients. These days there are many forms of PR practice,
for use by the media.
and many recipients of the work of PR practitioners, but a prime
Diary note: a document used
method for dissemination of information remains the media
by PR practitioners to alert
release, also known as the news release or press release.
journalists and editors to a
This tools section will explain how to create a successful
forthcoming event, often a
media release that stands a chance of being read by the target
media conference or a speech
journalists and editors. The sheer volume of such material
by a prominent person. It is a
form of invitation tailored to
arriving in newsrooms makes the task of being noticed
the needs of the media, and is
challenging but not insurmountable. We will also need to look
generally distributed by email
at a lesser-known document, the diary note or media alert, a
or facsimile up to one week
form of media invitation that often precedes a media release.
before the event.
Diary note or media alert
The diary note serves a specific purpose, related to but separate from the media release. It is
used to let journalists and editors know about a forthcoming event, often a media conference
or speech by a prominent person, and to ensure that they have all the information necessary to
attend. It is a special media form of invitation.
There are two keys to preparing a successful diary note or media alert:
Your note must be absolutely clear, with easy-to-follow directions and all relevant information prominently displayed.
It should not reveal too much information, because you don’t want the story to be released
before the media conference and hence compromise its news value.
This document is usually sent out one to seven days before the event it refers to. Effective
PR practitioners always follow up the distribution of media alerts with phone calls to all media
outlets to ensure they have received the information. You should make a list of likely media
attendees and brief your spokespeople, the senior people from your organisation who will speak
at the news conference, on what to expect.
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Example of an effective diary note or media alert
Media alert
Journalists are invited to attend a media conference featuring Nobel Laureate Professor
David Evans from the University of California at Los Angeles. Professor Evans will
announce a significant initiative concerning Mark Oliphant University (MOU).
The head of the MOU School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Dr Helen Jacobson,
will also be attending, and will be available to answer questions.
The media conference will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 8 April 2009 in the foyer
of the Isaac Newton Auditorium, just off the main campus ring road on entry to the
Mitchelson Campus of MOU.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Tools 2: How to Write a Media Release
Tools 2: How to Wr ite a Media Release 145
Ms Julie Bloggs, MOU science communication manager
PH: 06-5781 0099
Mob: 0419 666 888
Email: [email protected]
Dr Helen Jacobson, head of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
PH: 06-5781 0088
Email: [email protected]
2 April 2009
Example of an ineffective diary note or media alert
Media alert
Professor David Evans will announce at a media conference next week that MOU’s Physics
School will merge with the Physics School at the University of California at Los Angeles.
This new development is expected to cost about $15 million and will take place over
three years.
Professor David Evans’ announcement will take place at the Mitchelson campus of JCU.
Speak to Ms Julie Bloggs for more information, or call the head of Physics.
Liz Tynan
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146 Part 2: Media Institutions
Note that the ineffective example of a diary note or media release both gives away the main
part of the story and makes it hard for the journalist to follow up, as it does not provide contact
details or information on how to reach the venue. Unlike the effective example, the bad diary
note does not show the date of its release. Dating your media alerts and media releases is
essential; otherwise they will lack sufficient context, and will be disregarded by journalists,
who will not want to be bothered chasing up this level of detail.
If you wish, you could place embargoed information about the substance of the media
conference into the media alert, as metro journalists in particular will not commit to an event
unless they know exactly what is being announced. However, as a PR person you must ensure
that your announcement is not pre-empted in the media, thus rendering the media conference
redundant and probably ensuring that no one turns up.
Remember always the purpose of the diary note or media alert: to get media representatives
to come to your event and report on it. They won’t do this if the story has already been released,
you make it too difficult for them to reach the venue, or they become confused about dates.
The media release
Once your diary note has done its job and enticed members of the media along to the media
conference, you will pass around copies of the full media release, containing all the information
you want journalists to have. Of course, you may send out a media release without a prior diary
note, depending on the kind of story you are dealing with. A diary note will only be needed if
your story is connected with an actual media event where journalists will be in attendance.
Writing an effective media release is simple. That doesn’t mean that it is easy. There are
many formats and styles that are perfectly acceptable, and the exact look of a media release is
often a matter of the style and taste preferences of the organisation issuing it. However, there
are still some rules that apply in all cases, and which are known to assist in the uptake of
material from releases.
Media release versus press release
While many people still refer to the press release, in fact this term is held by many industry
practitioners to be outdated, as it seems to refer only to the print media (the ‘press’),
excluding the electronic media. While not everyone sees this as an important issue, it is
wise for PR people to be as inclusive as possible, which is why many choose to adopt the
term media release rather than press release. This also holds for media conference rather
than press conference.
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Tools 2: How to Wr ite a Media Release 147
The media release is a longstanding method for reaching journalists, mostly because no better
way has been found to brief them quickly. Journalists, while often scorning public relations
information, do use media releases, because they can save a lot of time and make access to the
story easy for someone who is really pressed. Some newspapers even cut and paste media releases
and run them pretty much verbatim (often with a reporter’s byline), particularly if the PR person
has got the style right. While this is not necessarily journalism, it is a reality in today’s media.
Just like a news story
An effective media release is much like a well-written news story: it should have a clear
opening sentence, then an inverted-pyramid structure that takes the reader though a hierarchy
of information from most important to least important. It is best to deal with one fact at a time
in each sentence and, as with a news story, make each sentence its own paragraph.
You write it this way to match the idiom of the newsroom that you are trying to reach. News
journalists are trained to write in a specific style; if PR people want their material to be used
by news journalists, they must adopt the same style. Journalists prize clarity and simplicity,
so your media materials should always demonstrate these qualities. Journalists receive a huge
volume of media releases each day, and will simply throw out
Backgrounder: Material
those they cannot understand immediately.
provided in addition to a
Your media release may be either one or two pages long. By
media release or diary note,
consisting of important
all means go to two pages if the information warrants it, but
information that cannot fit
never go beyond two pages. If you have other information that
within a one- or two-page
you must supply, put it into a backgrounder (see below) and
media release.
attach it as an extra document.
Tools 2: How to Write a Media Release
The media release: a useful document
The main attributes of a media release
The release should feature a simple, eye-catching headline in journalistic style. Try not to
use clichés or appear too clever. A simple, straightforward statement is all that is required;
newspaper subs prefer to be clever on their own behalf.
You should address the Who, What, When, Where, Why, How formula that also applies
to news stories. Make sure, when you look at what you have written, that all these questions
are answered.
Your prose should be brief, well-expressed and as much as possible in the grammatical
active voice. It should never sound like an advertisement—this is media death. In most cases,
journalists are repelled by the advertising writing style, and will only respond to material
that is not only written like news but also contains actual news. Your media release must be
journalistic in its use of language and its news values, and so it is important to understand the
information in Chapters 4 and 14.
Liz Tynan
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148 Part 2: Media Institutions
Make it look good
Your releases should always look good. They must not use hard-to-read typefaces and blocks
of impenetrable grey text. Avoid fancy fonts, and stick to easy-to-read typefaces such as Times
New Roman and Helvetica. Your text should be surrounded by plenty of white space and have a
pleasing, uncrowded appearance. Don’t try to fit too much on the page. If your document looks
too busy, do what you can to simplify it. Use your organisation’s logo every time. A consistent
look for every release and alert you send out is very helpful. If you are doing your job properly,
a quick glance by editors or journalists will assure them that the document they have received
from you will be useful. A logo helps ensure both authority and consistency.
Ensure your organisation understands the role of the
media release
It may be necessary for the PR person to counsel senior managers or other colleagues on the
need to ensure that the release is media friendly rather than merely satisfactory to the management of the organisation. Management may well be comfortable with dense text, corporate
or organisational jargon, and comforting passive-voice sentence structure, but journalists and
editors will not read such documents. An important role for the PR person is ensuring that the
media documents always match their purpose.
Always use quotes
You must include direct quotations from a clearly identified individual in the text, to provide
attribution for assertions. Journalists do not like to use unattributed assertions, so there must
always be a name to go with the words. Ensure that the quotes are started fairly close to the
beginning—usually about paragraph four or five. There should be more than one direct quote,
although there is no strict rule on exactly how many. It is often helpful to quote from more
than one source if possible.
A key difference between news stories and media releases may well become apparent at this
point—quite often the PR person composes suitable quotes and doesn’t rely upon the person
actually saying something. But you must—always—check with the person who has been
quoted to see that he or she is happy with what you have written. It is essential that you do not
place anything into the public domain that is going to embarrass or even surprise your senior
management. They must have seen your release ahead of time.
Provide contact details
Your media release will clearly give the names and other details of several individuals who will
be able to assist with further information. The person or people quoted in the media release
should usually be on that list, though it is not always possible, and depends upon individual
circumstances. You should clearly list all the means by which journalists can contact you, the
PR person. With a big story, it is often the case that the senior people quoted are attending to
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media queries while other journalists are trying to phone or email them, so you have to help
answer that overflow. Your role will not necessarily be to become the spokesperson, providing
quotes for the journalist’s story. It is more likely that you will take names and phone numbers
of journalists, and get your interviewee back in touch with them as soon as humanly possible.
Other essential information
As with the diary note or media alert, your media releases must always carry the date, and these
days a web page address is helpful as well, as journalists like to have a look at an organisation’s
web page for additional background before they carry out their interviews. As early as possible
in the body text of the release, introduce the name of your organisation, to make clear who has
released this information, as well as placing the logo on the page.
Time of release
Media releases being sent by email or fax, as opposed to being handed out at a media conference, should be sent out as early as possible on the day of the announcement. This gives the
news organisations enough time to include your story when they allocate their activities for the
day. Sending media releases too late in the day, such as at 3 p.m., almost always ensures that
they won’t be used, unless they deal with an exceptionally big and urgent story.
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Tools 2: How to Wr ite a Media Release 149
Tailor your releases
You should tailor your news releases to the particular media market you want to attract. Your
news item must be relevant to the kinds of issues the target publications and broadcasters
concern themselves with. As a PR officer, you must consume all the media in your immediate
vicinity—you must study it and be aware of what makes news to these outlets. You should
make extensive use of a reliable listing of media organisations, such as Margaret Gee’s Media
Guide. This will give you access to the full range of Australian media outlets, from the most
prominent to the most obscure.
Often PR people write separate releases for different markets. The ability to do this only
comes from a strong knowledge base about the media you are trying to reach. If you want a
regional publication to run your story, make sure you understand how it fits their news agenda.
It is very insulting to the reporters and editors at a media outlet if the PR person is clearly
ignorant of their formats and requirements. It is just too easy for them to shun a PR person
who hasn’t taken the time to find out about the outlet.
Ensure your release fits the news agenda
Because media releases are designed to appeal to journalists
and editors, they must contain real news. No amount of spin
will make a news story out of nothing but hype. You must refer
Hype: extravagant and
overstated publicity: a
contraction of the word
‘hyperbole’, which means an
exaggerated statement not
meant to be taken literally.
Liz Tynan
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150 Part 2: Media Institutions
to the accepted news ingredients of the media to ensure that your release will slot into a
news agenda.
As Tymson and Lazar (2000) recommend, the news item you want to promote in your
media release must contain one or more of the following elements:
well-known people
timeliness
a local angle
public interest
novelty
achievement
emotion.
You should test all potential media releases against your own knowledge of what constitutes
news, and also in relation to your research on what the targeted outlets view as news. This is one
reason why journalists are in demand as PR people, because they have developed a news sense.
Embargoes
Sometimes it is necessary to place an embargo on a news release. For a complex story, it
gives journalists enough time to properly research it before having to go to press or to air.
For a story that is being announced in a different time zone, particularly if it is overseas, the
embargo enables various journalists or broadcasters to coordinate
Embargo: A notice
coverage. It is quite a common procedure.
forbidding release of
Clearly identify the embargo release date or time at the top
information about an event
of the release—don’t place a note down at the bottom or end of
before a certain time or date.
the release. The embargo date must be bold and upfront, giving
the embargo expiry time and date. For example, you could place in bold letters at the top of a
release the following standard form of words:
Under embargo until 2 a.m. Friday, 10 May 2009
There are absolutely no guarantees that journalists will honour the embargo, and you must
make your organisation’s management aware of this fact. A journalistic ethic clearly requires
the honouring of embargoes, but leads to no enforceable punishment except shunning the news
organisation if it transgresses. Do not use embargoes for the sake of it; there must be a reason
for applying an embargo, otherwise you will just irritate journalists and encourage them to
transgress.
Backgrounders
Quite often media releases are accompanied by another kind of media material known as a
backgrounder, which may take several different forms:
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a page or two of brief bullet point notes, perhaps providing key dates and history in the
form of a timeline; or
essentially a feature story, provided in order to flesh out the news story contained in the
media release proper.
Your feature may be up to about 2000 words long, and will probably contain subheadings to
break it up. You may want to include relevant images, such as photos, drawings and graphs.
You may well have a list of further reading and additional contacts. The idea is to give the story
extra depth and provide the journalist with increased options for following up the story.
Media kits
Quite often you will prepare a media kit that will include the main media release as well as a
backgrounder and any other relevant material, and you will place it in a special folder. The kit
folders are specially printed, and will feature the organisation’s logo and relevant images. They
are often A4 cardboard, folded to make a pocket inside to hold material. Apart from a media
release, the kit will often contain background information of various kinds, including, for
example, fact sheets giving technical information, graphs, photos, pens, coasters or whatever
your organisation deems useful for a journalist to have.
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Tips on what to do and what to avoid
Make sure you always:
provide information that is genuinely newsworthy
answer these questions in your release: ‘Who?’, ‘What?’, ‘When?’, ‘Where?’, ‘How?’
and ‘Why?’
use the inverted-pyramid news story style, and always include direct quotes
write your release in grammatically correct, expressive, active-voice journalistic
English
make sure the first paragraph of your release grabs the reader’s interest
write a simple, eye-catching headline in journalistic style
make it as easy as possible for media representatives to do their jobs by anticipating
their needs.
Make sure you never:
allow your media release to read like an advertisement
fail to provide the date of the release
>
Liz Tynan
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152 Part 2: Media Institutions
forget to list as much contact information as possible: the name of the PR person and
other relevant individuals to contact, plus the street address, phone and fax numbers,
and email and website addresses
give your release a confusing layout: you must ensure that the layout aids understanding; use easy-to-read typefaces and plenty of white space
give in to anyone in your organisation who wants you to include technical or corporate
jargon—this is guaranteed to send the release straight to the newsroom bin
neglect to clear all direct quotations with the sources being quoted.
To really shine, your release should offer a timely, important story in beautifully correct
and stylish journalistic prose, with all the boxes ticked in the newsroom(s) you are aiming
for. Do this and you will become sought after by the media as someone who actually
understands what they do and can be relied upon to provide precisely what is required
every time.
KEY REFERENCE
Tymson, C., Lazar, P., and Lazar, R. (2000). The New Australian and New Zealand Public Relations
Manual. Chatswood: Tymson Communications.
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