Press Release or a news release is the official communication document sent to a journalist/media by a Public Relations Professional or Corporate Communication Manger on behalf of a company. This document is the most trustworthy communication collateral shared by a company in order to deliberate the official announcement or information of that matter. Unlike a Feature, Press Release is not informal in nature and therefore is considered to be written in such a way that it is easy for a journalist to understand and gather the knowledge around the subject shared.
In order to catch a journalist’s attention towards your release, think of using these effective ways to write a press release.
1) Headline/Heading: Short and crisp headline sells. Your headline attracts the eyes of a journalist towards the news/information shared. While writing a headline always keep in mind why are you sharing this piece of information or news. If it is about a product launch or change in top management, mention that straight forward in your news. The font of your heading should be bold and big enough to read it in one go.
2) Sub heading: Sub-heading is a little more in-depth to what the news is about. You can have 2-3 subheadings and can totally skip it too. Always remember, font of sub-heading is generally 2 fonts smaller than the main heading.
3) Dateline: Dateline is beginning of your press-release. It is the point that mentions about ‘Where’ and ‘When’ has the news taken place. Your dateline should always be factual because it is the first thing a journalist reads while going through your content.
For example : If a story has taken place in New Delhi on 17th of January 2019 and you send it for coverage on 1st of February 2019, the journalist won’t take an interest in it because it (story) has lost its news value by then for him. Therefore, always be real and factual with the story dateline.
4) Lede: Lede or Lead in press release is the most crucial part of your information. After a strong headline and an actual dateline, lede attracts the journo to take your news into final consideration i.e. whether to carry it forward in their respective publication or not.
Lede contains a combination of the 5Ws and 1H i.e. Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. One should always summarize the purpose of sharing a press release in this first paragraph itself.
5) Body: This is usually the 2nd and 3rd paragraph of the content shared. A body in press release contains all the important facts and database required to understand your shared information in more detailed manner. Like human body supports the mind in a human being, similarly, body in press release also acts as a support system to the lead information shared in the beginning.
6) Quote: Including useful quotes in the press release adds credibility to the information shared. It gives a dimension to your release and at the same time furthermore adds interest towards the organization. Quote is usually a statement made by the top management of the firm and you should always ensure to keep the quote relevant to the news being shared.
Pro tip: Always mention the name of the person you are quoting in bold and keep their quote in italics to give it keen eye by a reader. A quote should always be mentioned in double inverted commas.
7) Tail: A tail is the extra information provided for further interest. It is not absolute necessary to add tail to your press release.
8) Boilerplate: Written at the end of the press release, a boilerplate is a summarized para of what the company mentioned above in release is and stands for. This short paragraph should explain your organization well to a reader. Font of boilerplate is smaller than that of the whole press release.
9) Media Contact Details: Here you put in your information i.e. your name, organization and contact details (email id and phone number) for a journalist to get in touch with you for any other related query.
Since a press release is an official announcement document, it should be written in jargon free, easy to understand language. Thumb rule of writing a press release to always write it in an “Inverted Pyramid” style with the most useful information (Lead) in the beginning followed by the Body and Tail in the end.