We often come across concepts whose meanings we do not know, but which we constantly encounter when reading newspapers or magazines. PR and press release - how are these things connected and what are they?
Press Release: Key Concepts and Functions
A press release is one of the main PR documents of any private organization. If you translate the phrase “press-release” from English, you get literally “what is presented to the press; what is released to the masses” - i.e. a document that establishes a dialogue between the company and the public through an intermediary - the media.
The press release, in fact, is a plain text material, sometimes supplemented by pictures or photographs. The material of the press release can be called news about the things going on inside the organization, the opinion of the organization on any issue, or the response of this organization to events that have occurred in a particular area.
Do not confuse the communiqué and the press release. Communique - notification information about past, for example, international negotiations, summits, meetings. Communiqué is a state press release covering important events for a country.
What are the features of a press release?
The main function of the press release is to attract the attention of the public or the target audience by informing the media about important (or not quite) events that took place in the organization the day before.
Distribution of press releases allows you to attract the target audience or investors, or simply increase the company's popularity and public awareness of the existence of an organization.
Press release structure: how to write the right press release. Advice
Many PR-managers have their own style of writing press releases, and also prefer different details in different ways. However, there are some key points that any press release must comply with:
1. Competent title. The title should reflect the essence of further material. A well-formed heading should not be large, but should succinctly describe the essence of the topic; it should cling to the first second, forcing a person to read further.
2. The first to second paragraphs. The most important paragraphs - approximately as much time is spent on compiling them as on all the remaining material. Paragraphs should not be large - approximately 2-3 clearly formulated sentences. The first paragraph (lead) should answer the questions: “Who?”, “What?”, “How?”, “Where?”, “Why?”.
Lead should succinctly and as informatively disclose the whole essence of the press release - it is from this that the journalist will judge whether this material should be placed in a newspaper, magazine, on the site.
3. The press release should not be large - a maximum of 2 A4 pages in 12 Times New Roman font. The press release should not contain advertising and an appeal to buy this or that product or service - this scares the journalists away, gives rise to distrust of the organization in them.
It should be noted that press releases are divided into two types: news releases (information about past events or events) and press release announcements, i.e. information about upcoming events that are supposedly recommended to visit the media.
4. The rest of the body of the press release is often dry facts and figures that will attract people who are most interested (target audience). This part of the press release reaches 30% of readers. It may contain comments of authoritative persons (company management, investors, etc.), as well as the background of the company - a summary of the history and success of the company.
The information in the press release must comply with the following characteristics:
- The relevance of information (topicality, uniqueness, or even the connection of information with some important social problem)
- It should be interesting to the audience it is designed for: if information is related to business - more figures and facts, if culture - more adjectives and metaphors.
- Freshness of information: what was written about a week ago will not interest anyone today.
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