We’ve said it before but it’s worthwhile repeating here: Press releases form the platform on which your entire press relations campaign will be based. You start the campaign with them, and you try to send out at least one every month if possible. Apart from briefing the press, there are several useful spin-offs you can get from press releases. For example, they come in handy as news items in your corporate newsletter or house magazine and you can quite easily convert some releases into ‘Newsflash’ leaflets for use in direct mail shots.
An increasing number of organisations are also putting copies of their releases on their website news pages for an example of the benefits to be gained by doing this, see the press relations case study on ‘Albert the Wonderloo’ on page 104. Also, anyone scrolling down through the headings of all your releases, articles, etc. will be really impressed with how active and successful you are, even if they don’t read them all!
Selecting good, newsworthy stories for press releasing is important, but the way you present them to the press is critical. When you are researching and writing news stories, you may find yourself trying to tell them as you would like them to appear in the press. Correct this suicidal tendency! The wording, the style, the ‘shape’ of the story, all must accord with what an editor would want to see, and which give him the least possible trouble if he is considering using it. Editors receive dozens of press releases every week, but they don’t have enough space to use them all. Hence they have to make choices as to what they do with each one.
Getting Your Story On The Page
What are the choices open to an editor when he picks up your release? He has three basic options:
- Use it in the issue he’s currently putting together.
- If there’s no space for it at present, hold it pending for a future issue.
- Bin it.
Remember, there’s no appeal procedure! So when an editor’s eye first alights on your press release, what is he looking for? How does he decide whether yours gets in, gets held over, or hits the bin? It takes only seconds for him to check the following.
Is There A Story, And What Is It?
Can he see at a glance what the story is? The editor needs to know what kind of story it is, so as to know where to
put it in the magazine (see ‘Writing for slots’ below – and now you know the reason for putting headings on press releases!). If he has to battle his way through a literary jungle in an effort to discover the answer, well, a busy editor with lots of other material to choose from probably won’t bother. On the other hand, if he can see that it’s a good, worthwhile story, he may elbow someone else’s out to put yours in.
Who Are You?
Does the editor know you? Has he seen any stories from you before? If you’re a complete newcomer, all other things being equal he may give his regular contributors priority if he’s strapped for space. But if he likes what he sees, you might get held over to a later issue. And believe it. it does happen; we’ve seen a story appear in a magazine about nine months after we sent it to them. It was a personnel appointment story accompanied by a pic, and our client remarked that the release was so old yet he still looked so young!
Do I Have To Do Any Work On It?
If the editor understands what the story is but he has to rewrite your release, or contact you to resolve queries, this busy person may decide that the bin is the easiest solution. ‘The best possible story for the least possible effort’ is the ideal combination that your average editor is looking for. Give him both, and you’ve gained his respect and probably a place in one of his forthcoming issues.