QUESTION OF THE MONTH
Q. What makes an effective media release?
A. The best media releases are tailored to the media outlet you're pitching. This may be as simple as changing the intro paragraph to speak to the needs of a particular outlet, or as extreme as re-writing the entire document. Each customised release should then be emailed personally to individual journalists, editors or producers with an elevator pitch in the body of the email, capturing why your story will work for their audience. Media people don't have time to open every attachment, let alone brainstorm how your news can help them - the surest way to get coverage is to make using your news easy for the journalist. This means effectively writing a news story, in standard inverted pyramid form, focusing on what is newsworthy - not necessarily what's most important to you or your company. It also means knowing what else your target outlet will need to run your story - from hi res images to talent and sources (not just yours, but competitors' and third parties) - and offering immediate access to these... ensuring you've briefed any spokespeople on key messages first. Sure all this takes longer than preparing a single release and sending it to a media list, but the return on your time investment will speak for itself.
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