by Author Name Withheld 67

Created on: March 20, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Get your most important point right at the beginning of your press release. Imagine an editor with scissors who cuts off everything after the first five sentences and throws it into the garbage. That editor is real.

We live in a headline, bite-sized-news age. Many of your readers will stop right here.

Press releases tend to follow certain formats. The formats vary from one industry to another. Look at press releases for the industry leaders in your business. See how their paragraphs are structured.

The most important information is always right at the beginning of a good press release. Then come the details and statistics, the personal quotations, directions, times and dates and so on.

Imagine the president of your most important customer reading your press release. He reads the headline and skims the first paragraph. He learns your firm is launching a new Model T at the Detroit car show.

Mr. President asks his assistant to make arrangements for someone from the company to take a look at your booth. The assistant should be able to find the 5W's - Who, What, When, Where and Why (maybe How) - in your press release. Details are important but they are secondary in importance.

Press releases usually carry a date and a headline. If the company issuing the press release has a stock symbol, that should be right at the beginning too.

Look on the websites of some of the agencies who are in the business of releasing press releases as a service. Canada Newswire is one. You can find lots of good examples of press releases from companies in virtually any industry.

Non-profits also issue press releases. The rules are the same. Get to the point. Then stop.

Always include contact information at the end. That's where people are used to looking for it. Contact information should be set up in a separate paragraph with visible white space around it so the eye can skip to it immediately. Don't bury it in text.

Additional important information for public companies: your press releases are subject to regulatory requirements. Make sure you know the rules of the stock exchange your company is listed on, and the securities laws that apply to you. It is a serious offence to put out press releases with statements that are false or misleading. This is an expert field. Get legal advice.

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