How to write a News Release . . .

A news release (also called a press release) is "news" that is "released" to the news media. It's normally generated by a public relations specialist within a company, or from a PR agency representing a company (client).

These days news releases are almost always sent via e-mail, with a subject line indicating it's a news release and briefly pointing out the key "what" of the news (e.g., News Release: Daemen College to Offer Major in Magic).

A news release stands its best chance of being published (whether on-line or in print) if it conforms as closely as possible to accepted journalistic style. That means it should be written objectively: facts only, no opinion.

A news release must also include a Summary Lead (Lede), which is the opening sentence/paragraph. A Summary Lead does as the name suggests: it summarizes the main point of the story. A Summary Lead is almost always just one sentence long. And that one sentence opening is normally a separate paragraph -- even though it's just one sentence in length.

There should be a headline on your release. It doesn't have to be a complete sentence -- but it should be a complete or meaningful thought. In other words, an announcement about an upcoming Salvador Dali exhibition should NOT carry a headline like this: 'Salvador Dali Exhibition,' but SHOULD carry a headline like this: 'Salvador Dali Exhibition to Open in November at Smith Gallery'

After you've written your one-sentence summary lede, you then present supporting facts, details, quotes, etc., in descending order of importance. This structure is known as the Inverted Pyramid. It means the main information is at the very top of your release (story), and then less and less important information is presented as you move down in the story.

In theory, if an editor is pressed for time, he or she could conveniently cut from the bottom of your piece and not seriously affect the essence of it -- because what was cut was automatically known to be the least important information in the release.

The MOST important information, of course, is the lead. In fact, with a summary lead, it should be able to stand alone and still give readers enough information to know what's happening -- even if nothing but the lead were published!

We'll be seeing examples and writing some short releases, to get a feel for all this.

Also important in news release writing are two other things: the use of quotes, and the use of attribution. Let's take quotes first.

Quotes add a human and personal element to a news release. They add credibility as well. If someone is quoted, we know someone in authority said or explained something. It takes the focus off of us as the writer, and lets readers know that the key information is coming from respected sources.

Now, those sources are what we *attribute* information to. In other words, we ourselves (as the news release writer) aren't saying to readers that WE are conveying this information to them. We're saying that we know this information to be true based on what our sources have told us.

So we attribute information to those sources, when it's information that is common knowledge or that otherwise doesn't warrant attribution.

Keep in mind that the release will ONLY be seen by readers once it's published in the media to which you released it. And those media wish to maintain the appearance of objectivity or impartiality. So the way you write a news release must sound like the way it would appear, had it been written by a reporter from that publication. Again, this will become clearer as we look at examples.

A news release, ultimately, is a tool the PR specialist uses to promote something -- even though it also serves the needs of journalists, and the needs of news consumers. Often, then, we include at the end of a news release a "for more information" line. Editors may choose to run that or not. Indeed, it's THEIR decision whether a release will be run at all. They're the gatekeepers. They decide.

The two most crucial criteria to ensure your news release gets published are these: whether it's relevant news to the publication's coverage area (readership), and whether it's properly written in journalistic format.

We "end" a news release with either this: ##, or this: -30-

A news release should not be longer than what would fit on a single computer screen, without having to scroll down any further.

It should, style-wise, conform to AP Style (Associated Press), which is the standard style guide governing newspaper writing in the USA. We'll talk some about AP style.