5 Step Press Release How-To

The news media do not work for us.
We cannot guarantee our press release will show up in the press.
However, a few simple steps can really increase our chances.

1. STRUCTURE

Inverted Triangle

INVERTED TRIANGLE – most important to least important information. An editor should be able to cut this release from the bottom, all the way up to the first sentence only, to fit available print space.

2. CONTENT

WHY SHOULD THE GENERAL PUBLIC CARE?

If you want reporters to pick up your story, you must answer these questions in your release, and do so in language your (or your neighbor’s or sister's) eighth grader can easily understand.

Who is the audience of the REPORTER?? THAT is who must care about the topic – not our internal audience.

Example – We got a huge, cool Hoochie-Mamas Foundation grant to promote hugs in education and we’re having a meeting of invited interested parties to design activities to promote hugs in the community. This money & meeting are very important to us! We worked hard on that grant and the community needs more hugs!

Why would the majority of Southwest Washington readers – much less Portlanders – care about this money & meeting?  Unless they are on the invite list (less than 30 people) they wouldn’t.
 
Months later – The Hoochie-Mamas Committee of SW WA, sponsored by WSU Vancouver with funds from the Hoochie-Mamas Foundation, is hosting a huge series of fun hugging events, and hugs will now be incorporated in to the following classes…
 
These are real events that the public can attend, and therefore the local press would care. The funding comes later in the article, but we get it in there.

3. TEMPLATE

FOR  IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[DATE]

CONTACT:

Name, Department, phone, e-mail

Office of Marketing and Communications, 360-546-9599, news@vancouver.wsu.edu

HEADLINE Subject Verb Object [one line only!]

[12 pt text. Use words people would use when Googling your subject]

Vancouver, Wash. – [body]
[Lead paragraph – most important – Who, What, When, Where. Simple. Not the time for creativity. That can come later.]

[350 words max! Reporters tell me this all the time – keep to 1 page, 12 pt text. Add our boilerplate (below), and 350 words is all you get.]

WSU Vancouver is located at 14204 NE Salmon Creek Ave., east of the 134th Street exit from either I-5 or I-205, or via C-Tran bus service. We offer 16 bachelor’s degrees, nine master’s degrees, one doctorate degree and more than 36 fields of study. Visit us on the Web at www.vancouver.wsu.edu.

# # # [editor’s mark – end of story]

4. PROOFREAD before sending!!!

Correct grammar, punctuation and spelling are imperative. Outsiders see our publicity as indicative of our whole institution – WSU - not just the writer. If proofing is not your strength, then find someone else to look it over. 

5. ASSOCIATED PRESS STYLE

Send the release to MarComm , or WSU News , and they can wordsmith the release for Associated Press style . If reporters & editors don’t have to do this, if we do the work for them, we have a much great chance of getting our material in the news.