Crafting an Effective Press Release

A press release has one purpose – to gain press coverage, whether that be newspaper, radio, television, or online media.  

So, your primary goal must be to create a release that immediately engages the reporter, editor, or other gate keeper at the media organization, one that is instantly recognizable as worthy of coverage by them for whatever their audience is.  Realizing if you’re lucky you have five to ten seconds of their time to engage them enough to make that decision.

As part of that engagement, you must also prepare it in a format that at a minimum the gatekeeper can use as close to verbatim as possible, with a stretch goal being that a reporter/camera crew is dispatched to cover your event in person.

And finally, while accomplishing these goals, the release puts the event in as positive a light as possible – so long as you accomplish the first three items.

Fortunately, there is a fairly standard format to do so.  One that meets the needs of both the media and your organization.  All you need to do is craft the specifics to that format.  And distribute it.

I like to distribute press releases by email.  I will put the press release in the body of the email, and I will attach a word document.  That makes it easy for the press to both review quickly and to cut and paste from (which they will, so be sure to proofread). 

To distribute, you will need a current list of media contacts.  I like to send to both the editors of a media organization, but also reporters that I know may be interested in the topic.

Below is a press release we put together at the City of Lancaster.  It is an instantly recognizable format by the media.  It provides clearly and succinctly what is happening, and why it is important (to the media’s audience). It provides short and punchy quotes that are easily used.  And it provides a contact should the media wish to follow up.

I have commented on the various sections of the press release so that you can see how we accomplished our goals.