1. Create Catchy Headlines
All good PR writers know that media often change our headlines to fit their editorial style and look-and-feel, but that is no reason not at least to try to write good headlines. It must be punchy; say something about the newsworthiness of your story and should contain a verb. It must make sense in spite of its brevity. I will never forget the Daily Sun’s “Man kills himself and runs away!” (the Daily Sun, to my utter irritation, always concludes its headlines with exclamation marks).
2. Cover the Field Comprehensively
It drives me up the walls when senior PR practitioners rubbish the 5 Ws and 1 H concept. This is still the most fundamental rule for comprehensive writing: check to ensure that you have covered at least 4 of the 5 Ws and the H in the lead of your release. Who, what, where, when, why and how. The why will often, for good reasons, slip lower down into the second paragraph.
Why is this so important? Because newspaper readers don’t read each report from top to bottom when they pick up a newspaper. Most of us just scan the pages and quickly read selective leads (that go with catchy headlines!) before moving on. If your lead then does not cover the critical information, you have missed your reader entirely.
3. Go slow on Adjectives
There is a world of difference between advertising and PR writing. When your text is riddled with adjectives – and most of them tautologous to make things worse! - your release will end up where it belongs… in the bin.
“Ms Jones radiated sunny warmth as her gorgeous, sexy, luscious and delectable frame made its appearance in a beautiful, stunning, elegant creation by Balmein” will never make the cut.
4. Craft Clever Quotes
You do know that we, PR people, craft the quotes, don’t you? We very seldom really get them from those we ascribe them to. The secret is to (a) craft quotes that enhance your key messages and (b) get the blessing of those you quote before publishing them (you don’t want to be refuted by your own boss in public, do you?). If your quotes at the same time make memorable sound bites, so much the better. I often still wonder who originally created the genius “Give that man a Bell’s”.
5. Context is Crucial
Many good stories fade into oblivion because they were not contextualised properly. It requires the writer to place the essence of the story within a larger setting in which it acquires its true meaning. This may include referring to African socio-political or cultural influences that shift the reader’s perspective on a story away from a pure European perspective to understand how things are done in Africa. Help the reader understand the story in the right context.
6. Include a call to action
It serves very little purpose to write a grammatically perfect media release if you don’t get your readers to respond to it in the way you want them to. The very last sentence is therefore best reserved for a clear and distinctive call to action, e.g. “Interested readers are invited to test-drive this exiting addition to the Hyundai fleet at their nearest Hyundai dealer or to visit www.hyundai.co.za.”
7. It’s not about You!
No, “we” are not proud to announce anything; the organisation is. When writing for the media, the corporate communicator becomes just that: the voice of the organisation. There is no place for I, me, we or us in a good media release, unless these appear within quotes.
8. Hyperlink... even off the Web
As the internet continues its exponential growth and expansion, it will be wise for communication practitioners to grow with it and to harness its full potential. More and more media releases, even those originally purely intended for print, end up on social media, blogs and other web pages.
Make sure that those readers who read your text on a web page, get the full value of what you offer them by linking words, phrases or parts of text to appropriate content elsewhere that will strengthen your messages. This can be done to explain jargon or technical terminology; provide more context or perspectives; give access to more detail; share pictures or video from another host; or many other purposes.
9. Be Contactable
There cannot be a worse disappointment than finding out too late that a journalist was keen to publish your story, but that she could not get hold of you because your contact details were wrong or incomplete… and this happens all the time! A media release should at the very least contain the contact person’s landline telephone number, email address and mobile number. In addition the organisation’s website URL should be provided in the boilerplate that should be placed immediately after the content text.
10. Use Simple Language
Let me make this clear: Your text will not be perceived as coruscating or propitious for favourable consideration and is likely to be discarded as either inchoate or moribund if you use it to display your obsession with loquacious words and phrases. Nothing beats plain, simple English to create clear and unambiguous messages that speak directly to the hearts and minds of readers.