Publicizing Your Dream: Writing and Editing Tips

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Writing and Editing Tips

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 .