How To Write A Press Release That Won’t Get You Cursed By Reporters Everywhere

So you want to write a press release. Good. I dig press releases. It gives me something to write about when I haven’t had any coffee yet and I have to find something lucid to discuss. First I’ll tell you what you need to know about home business press releases, and then I’ll tell you how to write one. Sound fun? Good. So, who’s the press?

The press is people who get paid to relay information to other people via mass media.

The press is also people who do not get paid to do this, but are considered authority sources. If Anderson Cooper took a vow of perpetual poverty and decided to give up his worldly goods but still anchored for CNN, he would still be the press. Well, not the press. Not like, the whole press. He’d be some of the press.

Moving on, what’s a press release? There are a lot of possible definitions for “press release”, some of which are pretty freaking ridiculous. Seriously, use Google Definitions if you have nothing better to do. It’s funny. So maybe we won’t talk about what a press release is. We’ll talk about what an effective press release is. From my (very) brief foray into Google, here are a few:

“Description of a newsworthy occurrence written in journalistic style and mailed to news media.” From here. (Editor’s note: Don’t mail it. Nobody does that anymore. Then again, you might want to mail it BECAUSE nobody does that anymore.)

“A brief news article highlighting an important event, program, or piece of information by an organization that succinctly describes the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the story.” From here.

That’s a good definition, although I probably wouldn’t call a press release a news article. My favorite part is the last word. Story. Story story story story story story story story story story story story. That’s really important. Remember it. There may be a test. The most important thing you need to know about press releases is this:

If it wouldn’t make a good novel, it won’t make a good press release.

It might make a press release. Someone might even publish it. Barack Obama sneezes and it’s on the cover of the Post. You, however, are not Barack Obama. You are going to need a story. How do you find your story? Read on, dear reader, read on.

How To Find Your Story

Ask people. Preferably ones who love you. See what they say. Ask them outright. Say something like “Yo. What’s interesting about me?” Other people, unless they are incredibly stupid, will almost invariably have a better view of your story than you will because they are not a part of it.

I don’t personally know Erin from Durtbaz and I haven’t interviewed her extensively about her history, so I’ll make something up. Let’s say Erin’s mom wanted her to grow up and marry an accountant because Erin’s dad was a professional gambler and thus, highly unstable. She wants something better for her baby girl.

One day, Erin is clad in a dress that makes her look like a giant meringue, about to walk down the aisle to marry the accountant of her dreams and when the doors open for her to start her processional (recessional?) she sees that he’s not standing there. Why? He discovered the truth about her shady past and has also found Jesus. He wants nothing to do with her.

So Erin is destitute, doesn’t know what to do. The wedding-that-wasn’t cost her forty grand (which her dad would normally pay for, except he’s in jail for gambling related offenses) and she’s completely unemployable. While channel surfing on her sister’s couch and getting fatter by the minute, she runs across a late night airing of The Three Amigos. She hears Chevy Chase tell the old Mexican lady, “Sew! Sew like the wind!” and she’s got it.

She can sew. She could probably sew like the wind if necessary. Then she makes bags, makes a business, pays off her father’s mob debt, and lives happily ever after with heir to the mafia throne, Mario.

You can tell I got a little burned out by the end there, can’t you?

If you are still reading this, you know that this is a good story and I’m proven right. (If you’re not still reading this you don’t that I’m saying how right I am and can’t, therefore, prove me wrong.) You need interest. You need drama. You need something that will cause somebody you don’t know and never will to sit up in their Barcalounger, throw their Swanson dinner to the floor and say, “Wow!”

Your hat boutique’s semi-annual clearance sale does not fit the bill.

In order to get your story in the paper, you have to get the reporter interested. In order to get the reporter interested, you need to know what they want. What do they want? They want to keep their job. How will they get that? By writing good stories that their editors don’t hate.

Give them that, you’ve got your press coverage. Easy, huh?

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By Naomi Dunford - Jan 3, 2008 in Marketing School - 10 Comments