Preparing News Releases

At first glance, the daily newspaper serving your region or city and the weekly newspaper covering your town or neighborhood appear to be written by staff reporters. Magazines, trade publications, and other specialized periodicals also carry the bylines of staff writers and edi­tors. Indeed, the final versions of the stories and articles we read each day are assembled and packaged by journalists. But often the raw mate­rials—the ideas, facts and figures, quotes, and even tables or charts— are prepared by public relations professionals working for their companies or their clients.

This "subsidization" of the media, where companies and clients foot the bill for preparation of information for use by reporters and editors, works to keep the cost of the mass media low.

Read critically and you will discern the large amount of informa­tion that the media do not create, but merely pass along. This lecture helps you know how to prepare such information for use by the media.

Four members of management have just been named vice presidents. That's newsworthy to the readers of weekly newspapers in the various Suburban communities where each of the officers lives. It also is of interest to those who keep up with your field through a biweekly trade journal.

Your company has shifted to a new advertising agency in prepara­tion for bringing out a new line of products. Advertising trade colum­nists will want to know about it, and the products also should be written up in the public media.

Other occasions for issuing news releases include:

• Milestones, such as anniversaries of a company's existence, the millionth customer, or a decade since the introduction of a suc­cessful product or service.

• New savings or economies, such as institution of an energy-conservation or recycling program, or the achievement of pro­ductivity goals.

• Selection of the company by another institution or by a govern­ment agency to produce a component or service a new program.

• The winning of achievement awards by the company or its indi­vidual employees. Also, completion of training programs by managers or other employees.

• Opinions of company officials regarding the economy, pending legislation affecting business, or other public issues in which the firm has an interest.

• The results of research.

• Announcement of a contest.

The list could be virtually endless, and so far it includes only good news. Obviously, it also may be useful to issue a press release if you fire four vice presidents, lose an anticipated contract, decide to close a plant instead of modernizing it, or if your plant burns down and the fire chief states allegations of improper storage of combustible materials.

At holiday time, a beverage company distributes a feature release describing how to entertain large groups of people, complete with a photograph depicting the ideal setup (with the company's products prominently displayed, of course). Any company involved in high tech­nology probably can arrange for a panel of its scientists and engineers to predict the future a decade or a century hence, resulting in an inter­esting article for the Sunday newspaper.

Editors Depend on Releases

Some editors say they never look at the piles of "handouts" that cross their desks each day. But usually even the largest news organizations sort out the releases that offer tips, ideas, data, or other starting points for staff reporters, who will assemble and write a story in their own style. Routinely, certain columns in almost every paper are put together by pasting up news releases: business promotions, military personnel ac­tivities, and cultural and entertainment events.

Most weekly and small daily newspapers with limited resources depend heavily on news and features provided by governments, educational institutions, and trade associations to fill their columns. Similarly, radio station news personnel receive taped feature materials from public relations departments, and they have the phone numbers of "daily feed" systems that permit them to tape a minute or more of "live "quote" information from spokespersons for various organizations. The amount of information in the media that has its origins in news releases cannot be underestimated.