Some tips on press releases:
Having read thousands of releases, I figured I’d collect a couple of recent thoughts I’ve had on the subject. Just as there’s no such thing as the perfect article, the same is true for press releases; however, there are avoidable mistakes that crop up again and again. Apologies if these sound obvious, but they do come up a lot.
1. Cut the fluff
I get about 200-300 pitches a day, and I tend to skim-read, so I need the information in the most concise word count as possible. I love a good creative literary flourish, but every excess word costs time, and means it takes longer for me to understand what the story is. Make sure your content’s exciting, but stylistically, I’d rather it be boring and short, than long and lofty.
2. Headlines and toplines
Headlines are some of the hardest things to write in news, and it’s the same for releases. Make sure it does what it says on the tin. You then have about two sentences to hook us in and convey 90% of your message. Writing for TV news is great practice for elevator pitches as we’re often condensing 800 words of PA copy into 15 second NIBs. I’m still not particularly great it, but it is good practice.
3. What makes a good top line?
Does your embargoed news buck a trend or play into one? Is your client floating on the London stock exchange, rather than the NYSE or NASDAQ for example? What new facts will grab readers’/viewers’ attention?