So, I've had another morning of irritating press releases.
Most journalists are probably getting hundreds of press releases a day. When I get to work in the morning, I'll have a look at the 50 emails stacked up since last night and it probably takes me about ten seconds to delete them all - I just scan my eyes over the subject lines. Once I'm at work and more trickle in during the day, some of them might get opened and the first few lines of the email read.
With this context - here are some useful tips...
1. Think very hard about the subject line. If it just says "press release" = deleted. You need to explain exactly what the story is in the subject.
2. Don't just send the release in a Word document. This is the most common irritation. With hundreds of press releases to potentially look at - if the words are't right in front of me immediately there's no way I'm bothering to wait for my computer to open a Word document. It's fine to copy and paste the words of the release into the email and then attach more info or supporting documents - but the words have to be right there at the top of the email.
3. Don't bother phoning. So many people phone up and go "did you get the press release I sent"? Yes, yes we did. So we say "yes". Cue awkward pause until they say "...and would you like to do anything on it?". Well no, we wouldn't. Otherwise we'd have phoned you like you suggested in your email.
4. If you send a press release and offer someone for interview ... make sure that person is available for interview! You wouldn't believe the number of brainless press officers who send out a release with a name and number of someone to talk about it, you phone up immediately and say "yes please, can we talk to them?", and they just go "oh, um, err...I'm not sure. I think they're on holiday/in meetings all day/unavailable". Brilliant. Nice one.
Posts
This is just for starters!
ReplyDelete- check what publications you are sending your release to. I'm fed up, working on a website aimed at 16-24 year olds that carries no commercial copy, being hassled about releases for timeshare in Spain.
- write your press release, then delete every adjective you've put in it. If it still makes sense, send that out. If it doesn't rewrite it so it does.
- clearly state your research and how you researched. Many journalists read Ben Goldacre's column, and know how to spot a dodgy statistic.
And finally, if you send your document as a Word doc (and strongly suggest you don't); delete the review elements. Unless you genuinely want me to see you can't spell or you had to remove a litigous remark.
jokes!! I've never understood why we bother ringing up afterwards, it never worked on me when i was a journalist. For number 4, though, bear in mind that we can't control our clients. In fact, i'd say 80-90% of the apparent brainlessness of PRs actually comes from the clients.
ReplyDelete