Event announcements and product promotions are by far the most prevalent press releases seen in the inboxes of newspaper editors. Not all are well-written, but believe it not, that is not generally a factor in determining whether or not the information will be published.
It is guaranteed that your press release will be rewritten before it's published in print, though many newspapers will publish a press release as-is on their websites.
So, here are some tips on increasing the chances your press release will see the light of print.
Keep it local
In the almost seven years I spent as a managing editor, I first reviewed them based on relevance to the community the newspaper served.
If you send a press release to a rural or hyper-local newspaper, include why your product or event is important to that community. If your business is an hour away from the community, it's more likely it will be forwarded to the advertising department.
More information, please
The second thing I looked for was information. Surprisingly, organizations will issue a press release about a big event and fail to include all the event information. We'll get a date and no time, a business name where the event is but no address, and even no contact information.
If the event is fairly local, this is easily solved by calling or emailing the media contact. The farther out the event is, the editor may pass on publishing it.
Not another flyer
Some organizations will send a copy of a flyer with minimal information and call it a press release.
Folks, that is not a press release, and the flyer will not be published.
If you're local, you might expect a call from a reporter to do a story. If you're farther out, the email will likely be deleted or forwarded to the advertising team.
A pic worth 1,000 words
There are many press releases that have accompanying art, usually either a flyer or photo. Again, the flyer will not be published.
Editors prefer to have the names of anyone in the photos, in order of left to right and front row to back row, etc. At the very least, we love it when you write your own caption. This way, we can ensure we have the information right about what's going on in the picture.
There's a bonus if we get the photographer's information. Additional bonus points for a high-res photo, preferably not taken with a cellphone.
Don't say it again
I have seen a few press releases that repeated phrases or reworded the same sentence multiple times to, I assume, fill space under the letterhead. If the information is relevant, your 500-word essay will be cut down to a brief of less than 200 words. I've done this many times with poorly written releases.
Overflowing descriptions
When working with reporters to improve their writing, one of the first things I say to them is, "Get rid of all unnecessary adjectives and adverbs." In news reporting, these parts of speech can be construed as bias.
I get it: Your product promotion is important to you, and you want to make sure to let potential customers know how awesome it is, using all the adjectives at your disposal. I've done it, too, when I was working with the advertising team as an advertorial writer for a newspaper in Georgia. It was my job to write appropriately positive about the businesses and their products and services.
Yeah, all those are getting deleted.
Editors will remove those flowery descriptors. Your "awesome product" becomes a "product."
Localize this
Businesses sometimes announce a success story about how satisfied a customer is or offer a "local" expert on a cause based in a city that is hours away. The intent is to bring attention to the cause or a bit of human interest under the guise of being a feature story.
"Local" experts are almost always in that city that is and hour-plus drive away. Smaller newspapers won't be interested, particularly if the community they serve is less than 40,000 in population or the contacts are an hour away.
When this happens, newsrooms will sometimes recycle the idea and use it as a feature story that is hyper-local, or editors will delete the email.
Also -- shameless plug -- if you're in need of a press release, be sure to hit me up. I guarantee a good one that editors will look at.
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