News release
A news release is something that an author, a company, a politician, a celebrity, etc., gives to the media in order to get their story out. A news release proposes to have something important, something newsworthy, to say to the public. Generally a news release is faxed or mailed to the appropriate media outlet or outlets and is designed to be easily understandable and to get the maximum amount of information across as memorably as possible.
News releases play an important role in the art of public relations. Public relations, simply put, is the art of starting and maintaining pleasant, open relationships with the public. Businesses and important political and entertainment figures often employ public relations experts. In a world where information is communicated immediately and where nothing stays news for long, the public relations expert finds him or herself constantly on the go, constantly trying to keep their client in the public eye in a way that is both pleasing and informative to the public.
When thinking of news releases, there are a few things to keep in mind, including the following:
- Just like in high school, most media outlets require that you follow certain forms when sending a news release. It's not enough to simply type what you want to say on a piece of paper and send it; you have to format it according to the proper rules.
- A new release should be written simply. You want to say as clearly and simply as possible just why it is that your information is newsworthy. Reporters and others whose job it is to report the news are dealing with constant streams of information all day long every day. They need to know immediately why it is that your news release is newsworthy, why they should air it on the television or radio or put it into their newspaper.
- There are services that you can employ to make getting a news release to the various media outlets more easy and convenient, such commercial newswire services. Reporters and media heads are constantly consulting these newswires in order to discover what is current, new, and interesting, and what the public needs to know.
If an author writes a new book, he or she will want to employ a news release to get the word out about their new book. What is the book about? How does it fit in to the author's other works? What kind of advance critical acclaim has the book received? The news release should deal with all of these issues. If one is a new author, of course, it will be more difficult to get important media outlets to pick up on one's news release. Therefore, it will be important to find a good story angle or peg to base the news release around. A story angle or peg is the main emphasis of your story. In the author's case, why is his or her book important? Recently, books on the history of Catholicism have been very popular because of certain bestsellers having to do with that subject. Therefore, if an author's book deals with that subject, he or she will want to make it a main point of emphasis when composing a news release.
Politicians and movie stars often employ news releases to announce major changes in their campaign or in their lives. Their news releases, obviously, are going to be biased in their favor, and the news agencies know this. News releases should be written as objectively as possible. "Objective" means that a person is trying to tell both sides of a story. A news release, then, should be written so that it's obvious that the politician or celebrity is taking more facts into account than simply his or her own needs and interests. News releases should be written in such a way that they appeal to the public in general - what does the public want? what touches the public's heart? what excites the public? etc. - and get the information across in a simple, informative, and exciting way.
For more information on news releases, check out these great websites:
http://101publicrelations.com/sr3.html
http://101publicrelations.com/publicizingproducts.html
