The Purpose of a Press Release

Quick reference

• 00:05 Great, so now I'd like to walk you through the purpose of a press release.
• 00:10 Often, the best way to understand something
• 00:13 is to actually describe what it is not.
• 00:15 So here we're going to walk through a list of things of what a press release is not.
• 00:25 So first of all, it's not a complete story.
• 00:28 The full story will be told by the journalist who
• 00:33 chooses to write the article or who will interview you for more information.
• 00:38 Secondly, it's not an advert.
• 00:41 A press release that disguises itself as an advert will be frowned upon and
• 00:47 it will be sent to the trash folder with one click.
• 00:50 So let's not waste our time and that of the media industry.
• 00:55 If you want to advertise, rather do that instead of writing a press release.
• 01:00 Thirdly, a press release is not a feature article.
• 01:04 A press release actually is too short to be a feature article.
• 01:08 Your story or your product may well get featured if you focus on
• 01:14 writing something that is quite enticing.
• 01:17 Finally, it's not actually a social media status update.
• 01:21 If the content of the press release is irrelevant to both the customers and
• 01:26 the media, then it will come across us a lengthy social media status
• 01:31 update that's gonna be more suitable for Facebook or Twitter.
• 01:36 So what then is the purpose of a press release?
• 01:41 We can understand that by knowing what a press release is.
• 01:44 A press release contains noteworthy information that has
• 01:48 the potential to entice your readers to wanna find out more.
• 01:53 And it should make journalists want to contact you for a full interview or
• 01:58 to write an article themselves based on the information provided.
• 02:02 So to do that, the press release must be well written and concise, so
• 02:06 that it's easy to pick up and quick to read.
• 02:09 It's more like a synopsis of a news article than an article itself.
• 02:15 And it must provide information about the latest trends or
• 02:19 achievements or the products or our business, the organization that we're at,
• 02:24 or a high profile person who's contact details will be clearly stated.
• 02:30 So if we look more at the purpose of the press release then,
• 02:33 it's to inform the public, not only about the details of a new product, but
• 02:38 also about a new member being added to the board of directors,
• 02:42 change in top management, or when we move office location.
• 02:46 Or a service that's provided by the company, or even product launches and
• 02:51 we've got new products and other business functions that we might add or
• 02:55 reduce over time.
• 02:56 Now this can really go on.
• 02:58 The main thing to remember is that your press release needs to be current and
• 03:03 needs to be up to date and needs to be newsworthy.
• 03:06 What we don't want to do is waste our time on
• 03:09 yesterday's news that's already expired.

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