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What is a Press Release?

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About this lesson

A Press Release is a one or two page document stating newsworthy information about a company, product, or high profile person which can be distributed through different media channels. It is used both as a public relations and a marketing tool.

Exercise files

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What is a Press Release?.docx
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What is a Press Release? - Solution.docx
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What is a Press Release - Press Release Template.docx
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Quick reference

What is a Press Release

A press release is a one or two page document stating newsworthy information about a company, organization, product or high-profile person, which can be distributed through different media channels. It is used both as a public relations and a marketing tool.

When to use

A Press Release is appropriate to announce a change within an organization or business (e.g. a new member being added to the board of directors, a change in top management, moving office location), an event (e.g. product launches, business functions, charity events), some news (e.g. a new service provided by your company, the latest trends in the market, crisis management).

Instructions

A good press release should include all of the following 15 elements:

  • the brand (either a company letterhead or logo)
  • the contact information (easily contact someone responsible in your company)
  • the release time (“for immediate release’ or ‘hold until…’)
  • the headline or title (about 8 words)
  • the subhead (more information that didn’t fit in the headline)
  • the body of the press release opens with the dateline (which must be appropriately formatted) followed by the lead paragraph (an opening sentence that gets readers’ attention)
  • the main body of the press release comes next and includes:
  • one or more quotes (either by a person who works closely with the product or by a business leader such as the CEO or Director). These supporting statements add a human element to the press release.
  • The description of the event, product, or piece of news (which provides further information)
  • The closing paragraph which includes one or more calls to action (such as ‘register for this event ‘or ‘find out more details about this product’ with appropriately placed links)
  • At the end, include the boilerplate, a section about your company (with a link to company website).
  • For extra oomph, press releases often contain either photographs or media footage, or both.
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  • 00:05 Great, so what then is a press release?
  • 00:07 In short, a press release is a news worthy bit of information that can be
  • 00:12 delivered through various media channels.
  • 00:15 Since the beginning of human history, there have always been news.
  • 00:20 But really, what has changed now is the ways in which the news is being spread.
  • 00:26 So let's look at a history of press releases.
  • 00:30 So some centuries ago,
  • 00:31 the important news reached us through the booming voice of a town crier.
  • 00:37 This town crier would ring his bell to get people's attention and
  • 00:42 then he would shout out the news of the day for everyone to hear.
  • 00:46 Now as time went on, the town crier got replaced by newspapers which
  • 00:51 gave people the luxury of reading the news at their own homes when they've got time.
  • 00:57 And then journalists gained access to these stories through leaked information
  • 01:02 and letters, and other sources..
  • 01:04 Journalist would further investigate the news and
  • 01:08 then they wrote the articles on story that they deemed to be newsworthy, and
  • 01:13 this is how the traditional press release came about.
  • 01:16 Now we progressed from traditional press releases to online press releases.
  • 01:22 Press releases needed to be approved by respectable editors before
  • 01:27 they can be passed onto publishing houses.
  • 01:30 So a business owner typically needed to have good relationships with excellent
  • 01:35 editors and well-established publishers, because these contacts
  • 01:40 increase the likelihood of press releases being featured in top newspapers.
  • 01:46 So with the internet then,
  • 01:47 recent information have become only a click away and journalists really needed
  • 01:52 to up their game in order to continue to produce cutting edge press releases that
  • 01:57 people actually wanted to read in the midst of such an information overload and
  • 02:02 this is really where we are today.
  • 02:05 And so press releases quickly evolved into the form that we can see right now.
  • 02:10 So nowadays, the broad term press release includes so much more than just news.
  • 02:15 Press releases cover new products that's gonna be launched on the market.
  • 02:20 It covers reviews, business trends and business communications and
  • 02:25 events and they're easily and conveniently published on the web.
  • 02:31 But sadly, many of these press releases are just a waste of time.
  • 02:35 The main challenge with press releases is that the content can be quite poor.
  • 02:41 Now since so little thought is given to what should be relevant and
  • 02:46 since so much pointless information is put out and
  • 02:50 perhaps it is also worded poorly, we have some challenges to deal with it.
  • 02:57 And because of all these reasons,
  • 02:59 press releases are actually passed over without much care from the reader.
  • 03:04 And so what can we do to really work around these issues would be
  • 03:09 a critical question to ask as we go forward.
  • 03:12 Let's start by considering the characteristics of a press release.
  • 03:18 And here we're gonna look now at a successful template that
  • 03:22 you can follow to make the whole process better.
  • 03:27 So the press release really would be a one or two page document and
  • 03:32 it's gonna start by containing some newsworthy information.
  • 03:38 So these are the 15 components that's going to be included.
  • 03:42 We'll start off by naming the brand.
  • 03:46 So it's gonna be your company or your letterhead or your logo and
  • 03:50 then with we've gotta include some contact information, so
  • 03:54 that the press can actually get hold of us and then the release time.
  • 03:59 In other words, if we feel it's for immediate release or
  • 04:02 they should hold until Monday, whatever the case might be,
  • 04:05 we're gonna specify that and then the headline normally
  • 04:10 would be around eight words, then we're going to continue by adding a subhead.
  • 04:17 This is really some more information that couldn't fit into the headline.
  • 04:23 That's the easiest way to think about it and
  • 04:26 then we're going to include the body here.
  • 04:29 The body will open with a dateline.
  • 04:33 And so here, this has gotta be appropriately formatted,
  • 04:38 so that it's easy for the press to use.
  • 04:41 And then we're gonna follow that with a lead paragraph, which typically would
  • 04:46 have an opening sentence that's gonna get the reader's attention.
  • 04:54 So in our template, we wanna have a main body and
  • 04:57 then we're going to progress onto some quotes.
  • 05:02 Now a quote could be something that adds a human element and
  • 05:09 it may have been something that the CEO or
  • 05:12 the director provided us with, and this supporting statements
  • 05:17 is really great at taking that piece of information and humanizing it.
  • 05:24 Now in the description, this will typically be pertaining to the event or
  • 05:30 the product of the piece of news that we want to release.
  • 05:35 The description is gonna say exactly what that is in the shortest possible way and
  • 05:41 then we've got the closing paragraph,
  • 05:43 which is going to include some calls to action.
  • 05:48 Of course, we are going to be careful, so
  • 05:51 that it doesn't sound like just a sales pitch.
  • 05:53 And then at the end, we're going to add what we would call a boiler plate.
  • 05:59 And so this is just a section about a company going
  • 06:03 with a link to the company's website.
  • 06:07 For some extra mileage, of course, you can add some photographs and media footage.
  • 06:12 And nowadays, of course, one can easily embed a video.
  • 06:19 Now press released all end at the public at large, as well as journalists
  • 06:24 who might then contact the company for further confirmation.
  • 06:28 So to some it up, the press release is a business bulletin that's
  • 06:34 going to provide the readers with some helpful details.
  • 06:38 It's gonna say where something is, what is happening, why and when.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Welcome to Press Releases
04m:01s
The Purpose of a Press Release
03m:19s
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