Writing Tutorials

How to write a press release

By Editor Software

Headlines

A good headline covers the story and attracts the reader. Most headlines in press releases fail because they just outline the subject matter. Professional journalists use strong verbs and much more specific information in headlines to draw the reader into the story. Here are examples of journalistic headlines from the computer press.

Bitter Fruits of Going IT Alone
Marketing Means More Than a Brochure
'Perform or Else' Threat to IT Managers
Police Swoop in Raids Against Virus Writers
Suppliers Threaten to Put on Own Exhibition
What Role for Workers in Brave New World?

Good headlines use strong verbs, questions, quotations or thought-provoking ideas. They are usually under eight words long and announce the idea or theme of the article. Clever use of humour in headlines can also help attract readers' attention.

Opening Paragraph

Your opening paragraph in every item in your press release is the most important. It should grab your readers' attention and make them want to read on. You can do this by using:

a summary sentence
the Five-W lead paragraph: who, what, when, where, why.
a quotation
a question
a local angle of the story
humour

The Five-W Lead
News reporters use a technique called the Five-W Lead to provide the reader with the most information quickly. The "lead" or opening paragraph covers who, what, when, where and why. For example:

Who: Computerlink
What: Launched a £3 million takeover bid of Buscomp
Why: To raise its market share of accounting software
Where: North America
When: Yesterday

Press release Opening Paragraph: Computerlink launched a £3 million takeover bid of the Buscomp group yesterday to raise its North American market share of accounting software.

This technique makes sure you write your opening paragraph concisely, concentrating on the news and highlighting the facts. It also helps you adopt a good news reporting style.

Note: There is a sixth key word: how. Sometimes you need to explain how something works or happens in your opening paragraph.

Developing the press release

The easiest way to develop the news story is to draw on the key information in the lead paragraph, expanding the news and explaining its significance in each paragraph. This means placing the most important information in the lead paragraph and then adding the next most important information in the second paragraph, and so on until the end of the story. This has the advantage of giving a reader who only reads one or two paragraphs the key information quickly.

The second and later paragraphs add information about names, descriptions, quotations, explanations, background information, previous news, conflicting views and so on. You can bring in quotations and examples to add interest and variety to the news.

In developing the body of the news report, make sure you use words and phrases to link your paragraphs and you keep to specific and relevant information.

Writers Tip: To guarantee your press release is in clear, concise and easy-to-read English, I highly recommend you use the StyleWriter editing software.