In this news release, definitely for a good cause, there are several instructive writing tips that shorten the headline and lead, but also add clarity.
Category: PR Commentary
As a news release maven, it makes it all worthwhile to find that even PR firms have bad days and produce ill-conceived news releases.
Lowering word count by nearly 20 per cent and improving the meaning Original VANCOUVER, Sept. 24,…
Outside of the PR field, most people wonder what PR people do and what are the PR tools they use. The article explains PR professionals to the outside world.
I have waited my whole life for this day: Oct. 17, 2018, Canada becomes the first Western country to allow full marijuana legalization, medical and recreational.
In this PR Writer commentary, the use of ‘you’ to address the reader is unnecessary and can easily be eliminated without changing news release meaning.
As much as the PR Writer supports this project, the news release violates a fundamental media relations principle—the lead ignores the headline. The lead should recapitulate the headline, which it does not do until the third paragraph.
In media relations, reporters are like the person next to you in the lively bar. Inundated with news releases, they develop an exquisite sensibility for the caller’s credibility and can tell instantly if a pitch letter
will work.
The news media landscape has changed greatly and here is the other side of preparing for media interviews. The situation isn’t as bad as worried communicators may think.
Another in a series of writing tips from: How to be a better writer overnight.
Essential lesson #5: the path to PR writing excellence means casting off these errors, once you identify them.