By Chuck Whiting
Did you know that news reporters, editors and producers throw away roughly 90 percent of the press releases they receive? That's a startling statistic for entrepreneurs who are competing for much-needed media exposure. In this fast-paced technological age, media professionals are rushing to meet the next deadline. They don't have time to study press releases that are riddled with run-on sentences, poor punctuation, misspellings and grammatical errors.
Landing news coverage often hinges on "meeting the media professional's needs". Based on what I've been receiving in my e-mailbox lately, even some of the leading PR firms are getting it wrong.
Following are a few press release writing and editing tips. By using them, you will improve your odds of landing a big story.
* Before you even start to write a press release, be sure that you have a strong "news" hook. "If it ain't news, don't send it!"
* Follow the rules in the Associated Press Stylebook -- the resource guide that every professional print journalist uses.
* Write in the inverted pyramid structure, presenting your information from "most important to least important." Media professionals are in a hurry, and they may need to cut your story....
(* NOTE: To learn more, please join me in Nashville this spring for my four-week PR class, "Publicizing Your Dream: The Nuts and Bolts of Writing, Editing & News Media Exposure".)
Chuck Whiting is president and founder of Whiting Publicity & Promotions, a Nashville-based PR firm that specializes in publicity for businesses, organizations and professionals of all kinds. He also is the co-author and co-songwriter of The Littlest Star: a musical story, an internationally distributed holiday picture book and music CD. He teaches media writing at Middle Tennessee State University. You may contact Chuck at (615) 242-9857 or Arts@WhitingPublicity.com .
