Press release gripes - ten tips for PR types

by Chris UnLimited 21. February 2010 15:43

STUFF BY ME WEEK-ENDING 21 FEB 2010

I am guessing that whenever two industries collide, so that one group of people has to work with another on a regular basis, each group will usually treat the other with a certain degree of contempt.

So, in my world, if you sit with a bunch of PR people they'll tell you how frustrating and unreliable journalists are, while media people will tell you how frustrating and unreliable PR people can be. As someone who works in both the media and communications industries I can exclusively reveal, you're all useless. No, only joking, you're all brilliant. Mostly.

Though it never ceases to amaze me how many awful press release we get sent through to UnLimited each week, some from very esteemed PR agencies. I don't know what they teach at PR school about press releases, but either half the people working in media relations ignore everything the text book says, or the text book is just wrong. Perhaps text books say that PR people shouldn't rely on the simple generic press release, and should build personal relationships with journalists and communicate directly with the right hacks for each story. To an extent that's true, but in the real world there will always be times when a generic written statement needs to be sent to everyone on a press list. Plus, when PR people do call me to discuss a story, however enlightening the conversation may be, I'll always conclude by saying "could you send me a release about this?"

So, (many) PR people, you need to write better press releases. And to help, here are my ten top tips, from a journalist's point of view, partly based on my own experience and preferences, and partly on what I've picked up from fellow hacks in those "aren't all PR people useless" chats we've had while your collective backs have been turned. This list was originally published in the esPResso section on the Unicorn Jobs website, but because this is on my own blog, I've reworked it to be less polite! Don't worry PR people, I'll write a blog slagging off media types in a week to two.

CHRIS' TEN TIPS FOR BETTER PRESS RELEASES

1. Get to the point, fast. What's the story here? That's to say, think about what the 'news story' is that you're communicating, and make sure your opening paragraph is a summary of that story, nothing more nothing less. The story might simply be that you have a product release coming up, or that your company or client is making a corporate statement. If it is that simple, keep your release simple and resist the temptation to make things more complicated than they need to be.

Also resist the temptation to start with a long introduction of "how we got here" or "why what I'm about to tell you is so great" – the journalist will pick up your release and immediately ask "what’s the story here?". If the answer to that question is in the first sentence, the journalist is more likely to read on. If it's not answered by the second paragraph, they'll probably bin it.

I got a press release this week announcing two Jay-Z gigs. I had to work my way through 128 words of facts about the hip hop mogul before finding out what the news was, and then another 193 words about how great Jay is until getting to the crucial information in any gig announcement press release - simple listing info for the concerts. The basic dates should come first. In fact the basic dates should be the whole release, everything else can come in 'notes to editors' below (more on which in a minute).

Because I know who Jay-Z is. Actually, I probably know a lot more about Jay-Z than the people PRing his shows. And if I didn't know who Jay-Z was - and I concede some non-music hacks might not - then the one bit of information that might actually sell him to me, the fact that he's Mr Beyonce, wasn't even mentioned. I know to reduce the life of one of the greatest innovators and entrepreneurs in the history of hip hop to the name of the woman he married is depressing, but any journalist who doesn't yet know who Jay-Z is will probably only be interested/impressed by that one fact.

Two other quick points on getting to the point:

- If there are a number of news stories in one release (and try not to have too many, just one if possible) separate them out and write a short paragraph about each, with a clear section header and divider, so its obvious where each starts and finishes.

- If the aim of your press release is to get a review or interview, rather than a news story, then make sure that is obvious from the top – say something like 'review copies available on request' or 'interviews available with Mr X'.

2. Adopt a neutral style. An increasing number of websites, and even some newspapers, will take a good press release, do some moderate sub-editing, and publish it as is. This is a great opportunity for a PR person, because it means your company or client's message may be published almost in your own words. However, to enable this to happen you need to use a neutral style of writing – so, no obvious sales speak (generally the more OTT the adjectives the shitter the product), not too much jargon (unless it's a press release for specialist journalists) and nothing overly stylised (overly informal, full of metaphor, clever words etc). And keep to the point, and to the real news story - remember tip one!

3. Always include a quote. The fact you are releasing a new product, or staging a new offer, or whatever, often isn't really news at all, but if you offer a good quote from a named individual (preferably a senior executive, or anyone associated with your product that is well known) a desperate journalist with space to fill is much more likely to use your release despite the overall lack of newsworthiness. Someone saying something interesting is, in itself, newsworthy, and can make an otherwise dull story worth covering.

Think about what quote will be most newsworthy for different media. For CMU - our music business bulletin - because of our industry bias, we might be more interested in a label's A&R guy talking up a band rather than a quote from the artist themselves, especially if they are a new band of no repute signed to a credible label by a well known (in the industry) A&R person.

4. Present lists as a list. If you are providing stats, or data, or lists of names or stores or products, present that information in a simple list, rather than a piece of prose.

This week I got a press release announcing the nominations for Best Album at this year's Classical BRITs. Nowhere in the release was the actual list of nominated albums, rather the list was presented in prose with titles grouped by themes that interested the PR person. But it's for me the journalist to decide how I want to group the nominees in my article - according to my editorial interests - this is not the job of the PR.

By all means if there are interesting trends or facts, list them in bullet point form beneath the actual list of nominations. But put the simple list first, and certainly don't miss it out completely. In the case of the BRIT release, I had to email for the simple list, and by the time it arrived I'd missed deadline and we didn't report on the announcement at all. PR FAIL - as Tweet typers like to say.

In fact, if you think certain groupings or trends in your list or data are especially interesting, then put them in your named quote. That way I'll provide my analysis of the list in the the main body of my article, but then will probably publish your take pretty much verbatum as the quote.

One last point on lists. Try to make it easy for the journalist to cut and paste the data into another word document – ie don't use excessive tabbing or complicated tables. A simple list with bullet points is always best. And don't separate things in the list with wierd punctuation. One PR always sends me lists of artists (eg festival line ups) separated with slashes instead of commas. Tell me the magazine or website where they present lists of artists in that way. No one does. It means that every single journalist running the story has to find-and-replace space-slash-space for comma-space on your list. Some won't bother.

5. Push anything but the core information into 'notes for editors'. Background information is always useful - key dates, stats and facts will always be appreciated - but, as I said in tip one, push it all to the back of the press release under the heading 'notes to editors'. Everything in the main body of the release should be directly relevant to the main story. Notes to editors can be as long as you need them to be, but try and keep the main body under one side A4 (and no 8 point text to make it fit – you should aim for 12 point text with decent line spacing). With the facts, try and present them in bullet point form, in the style of a Wikipedia entry. Think - what info will the journalist want - not what info do we want the journalist to have which they'll probably ignore.

6. Always include a photo (or maybe a link to one). Many news websites need a picture to go with every story (ie their content management system demands a picture), and if you provide one you're saving the journalist work, and they are therefore much more likely to use your release. If you have no picture at all, then a product or company logo will do, though photos are always better. Assuming you're providing a quote, a picture of the person being quoted is always good. Executives who won't have their photos taken for such purposes need to be kicked, hard.

If you are providing a picture of a product or executive (which often you will be), try and make them interesting pictures (ie not on a white background, not too formal). And try to provide photos that can be cropped to be portrait, square or landscape in shape, so they will work for all possible page designs (or make alternative shapes available).

For websites, pictures should be provided as JPEGs at a decent size (in terms of centimetres) and at 72dpi. For print publications pictures need to be 300dpi at a decent size (in terms of centimetres). If pictures are 1MB plus, it is probably better to provide a link to where people can download a picture (ie on your website) rather than attaching excessively large files.

In fact every good PR agency and press department should have a page on their website where official photos can be downloaded at print and web specs. And don't do what one theatre company I know do - have a system whereby people have to register to access press photos, and that registration needs staff sign off. I needed a photo for an edition of ThreeWeeks going to press over the bank holiday weekend. By the time the press dept OKed my registration on Tuesday morning the paper had gone to press and their preview feature had been pulled. I don't really understand why any registration is needed at all - why can't these photos be in the public domain?

(Oh, and a special ThreeWeeks style Edinburgh Festival point on photos: All Edinburgh Fringe companies, make sure you have print quality photos on your website, or that your PR rep does this for you. Never rely on your venue to provide me with photos. One of the big four venues has such a rubbish press office who are so bad at providing photos, often we won't give any of their shows last minute coverage because we know we'll never be able to get a photo in time).

7. Keep layout simple and image-lite. It's tempting to spend lots of time making your press release look pretty (pictures, logos, text frames). Don't. Simple text press releases are most user-friendly, and in fact I prefer to have the text of the release in the body of the email instead of in an attached Word document (perhaps include in the body of the email and in a Word document). Oh, and if you do send a Word document, make sure it is an old school .doc file, not a nu skool .docx file. Many people still can't open the latter file type, Microsoft having recently taken us all back to 1998 with regard Word file compatability.

Oh, and never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never send press releases as PDFs. Doing so is stupid, and any PR who does it has no common sense and should be fired! Sorry, this is a real bug bear of mine. Think about it, if a journalist is interested in using your release, the first thing they will do is cut and paste key info, listings and quotes into a Word document where they will write their story. Even if they have the software to pull text off a PDF, it invariably copies over with all sorts of random returns and formating problems. Sending releases as PDFs is simply idiotic. Stop it idiots.

8. Always include a date, and make any embargo very clear. If you do need to embargo a press release (ie give a date before which a journalist is not allowed to run a story – normally because you have given a certain publication the exclusive first use of the story, or because the release contains timely sensitive information) make sure the embargo is at the top in bold large type. It is worth resending the release once the embargo has passed (with the embargo removed, obviously) – many journalists will have ignored your release when they saw the embargo and forgotten about it by the time the embargo passes!

Also, if you are press releasing a product launch make sure launch date information is all clearly given. You'd be amazed how many CDs come to us for review without a release date on the press release. OK, release dates are becoming less important in the record industry these days, but that is still crucial information, and should be in every press release.

9. Make sure contact information is correct. Sounds obvious, but you'd be amazed how many times you call the number given on a release and it goes through to the wrong person or department! Make sure the number you give is a manned line (or has relevant voicemail), there's nothing worse than following up a press release and being met with an unanswered phone.

10. Distribute internally. Pass copies of your release to your colleagues. It's just a little bit irritating if you call the agency listed as a press contact, only to find that the relevant account manager is on lunch and that no one else knows what you're talking about. Obviously your colleagues won't be able to deal with all media enquiries for your accounts, but at least if they are in the loop they can sound informed and take more effective messages. I'd forward copies of every release to my receptionist too – they are often a media person's first point of call, and it's great if they have an idea of what a journalist is talking about when they answer the phone.

Finally… Less is more. Read and re-read your press release – does everything need to be in there? Simple is always best.

And there you have it. Yeah I know, I sound like a whiny lazy journalist wanting PR people to do all the hard work. Actually I persevere with press releases that break all these rules on a daily basis, but I also know I skip over some, and I also know other journalists who would skip them all, unless the release was about a really big story. So do yourself a favour, follow these rules and you may well find journalists gratefully picking up even the most non-newsworthy stories you shunt in their direction.

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STUFF I DID THIS WEEK
Now, I don't want you to think I spent the entire week this week just watching TV, but I do want to mention SeeSaw, the worst named best new website so far this year. This is the long awaited commercial version of the BBC iPlayer, which was orginally going to be a JV between the Beeb, Channel 4 and Five until the Competition Commission decided that couldn't be so.

Although now owned by Arquiva, this is, nevertheless, pretty much what was always planned - new and archive C4 and Five content available via an uber-user-friendly iPlayer-eque interface. There's also a load of BBC archive content on there too, which you won't find on the main iPlayer. Most of the C4 and Five content is also available via those network's own on-demand services and their YouTube channels, but somehow with the SeeSaw/iPlayer interface it's so much more attractive to use - I've had a real 'Drop The Dead Donkey', 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Brasseye' of a weekend!

The only downside is that, like Spotify, they only currently have three advertisers, so the same ads come up a lot. But, like Spotify, I am willing to tolerate the repetitive ads because the system is so good. I just hope that SeeSaw, and Spotify for that matter, can make their business model work and can start getting enough advertisers so that repetitions decline and proper ad targeting can begin (also like Spotify, a pay to use subscription service is due to arrive on SeeSaw later this year, it will be interesting to see what uptake there is for that).

And to that end I urge every ad agency to buy ads here, and ITV to add their programmes, and every commercial radio station to drop their shoddy own Windows or Real player on-demand services and get talking to these guys about getting their archive shows available on-demand on here instead.

Look at me, a real SeeSaw advocate within a week of their launch. I just wish they had a name which didn't suggest they are pumping out back-to-back 'Mr Benn', 'Bagpuss' and 'Bod'. Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing.

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STUFF I WROTE THIS WEEK
A round up of some of the news stories and articles I wrote for UnLimited's media in the last seven days...

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MUSIC BUSINESS STUFF...

Hands proposed EMI split, internal documents reveal [CMU Daily 15/02/10]

MusicTank to focus on the release window issue [CMU Daily 15/02/10]

Live Nation announce alliance with Wal-mart [CMU Daily 15/02/10]

Nicoli to chair Nick Stewart's consultancy [CMU Daily 15/02/10]

Imagem buy Rodgers & Hammerstein out of EMI deal [CMU Daily 15/02/10]

Have you got that on a Grainge? [CMU Daily 15/02/10]

Musicians Union launch 'music supported here' campaign [CMU Daily 16/02/10]

Trailer and Reprise merge [CMU Daily 16/02/10]

EMI and Disney extend licensing alliance [CMU Daily 16/02/10]