Press releases
A press release gives journalists a short account of an organisation's news that they can use as it stands or investigate further, and it is more likely to be used when it is newsworthy, timely, clearly ordered and checked. Releases are also a point at which research findings get overstated on their way into the news.
What a release is for
A press release, also called a media release or news release, is the basic written communication tool for getting a message across to the media. It carries a short, succinct message and should generally run to no more than one side, two at most, of double-spaced A4 paper. Press releases are crucial to effective public relations and a key method of spreading an organisation's news and making announcements, though no substitute for creating and maintaining good relationships with media contacts. Writing and distributing a release may be a key step in the publicity of an organisation that is setting up a new business, launching a new product, planning an event, publishing new research findings or receiving negative press about itself or its product.
Journalists may use the supplied information as it stands for a news item or article, or give the story more prominence by commissioning or writing a feature that investigates it further, perhaps by interviewing the people the release names.
A release is not advertising: its primary aim is media coverage, and it is potentially worth much more than an advertisement because readers of the publication in which it is placed are much more likely to notice it. Advertising a product or event directly should be paid for through a publication's usual advertising channels. A release must therefore interest people outside the organisation enough for them to use and promote its content. It must inform and grab the attention of its reader, usually a journalist, and should convey information that is newsworthy, timely and clearly of interest to the media. Releases that are boring, and sent too frequently, lose their impact and are usually discarded quickly.
Newsworthiness and audience
Journalists are busy and receive new batches of information before they have processed the last, so a release keeps its impact only if it is clear about what it offers and why it is newsworthy. A story that interests the organisation will not necessarily interest a reporter, and a release that marks a major event in the organisation's life may be one of many a journalist receives that day. The writer gets into the journalist's mindset and asks what will interest them. The main aims of a journal or newspaper are to sell more copies and get higher ratings, and so are those of the journalists who work for it, who may also be looking for promotion, a rise in salary or an award for a good story; informing readers, though important, is not necessarily a high priority.
To achieve those aims, journalists need a newsworthy story, one that is new, significant, relevant and unique. A new generic me-too medicine is hardly news in itself, and being significantly cheaper than its competitors may increase interest. Packaging it in a new design that reduces the risk of dispensing errors, at a time when dispensing errors have been in the news, increases its newsworthiness, and if the packaging is the first on the market to address the issue and a study shows it works, the story is new, significant, relevant and unique, and a pharmaceutical journalist is likely to look at its release.
Information sympathetic to the readers or listeners a journalist writes for is more likely to be used than a release sent to every journalist the organisation knows, and rewriting the same story for several audiences may be more effective than one release for all. Those targeted are told that the information is intended for them, which gives them a reason to keep reading. A particularly interesting story may be better targeted at one type of media, or even offered as an exclusive to one journalist. A vitamin maker's research into who uses vitamins and why may interest few mainstream journalists, but turned into a quiz on what type of vitamin user a reader is, it can be offered as an exclusive to a journalist on a magazine that publishes such quizzes, and may get the company some positive copy.
The language and terminology should be what journalists are comfortable with, avoiding extravagant, highly technical medical terminology because journalists may not have a medical background. The release avoids unsubstantiated claims made to attract attention, such as "Guaranteed to cure a cold within 24 hours". The writer should always be able to provide the evidence for the release's facts if required.
Hook and timing
A release is issued when there is something topical and newsworthy to say. Every release needs a strong hook or angle that appeals to editors and gives the story a good chance of media coverage, and the writer keeps up with current affairs for events to hook into. A hook can be National Osteoporosis Week a couple of weeks away, for an organisation promoting public health among older people that has new research showing that weight-bearing physical activity can reduce the risk of fracture; a royal birthday in high summer, for a company with a new sunburn product; or medical research done in a country that is in the news.
A release is most likely to be taken up for a feature if it is built on a hook. It gives enough information to create interest and deliberately leaves out certain information, which may encourage a journalist to ask for an interview or more information, or to attend an event or briefing. An organisation that promotes fish consumption, at a time of public and media concern about mercury and other possible toxins in fish, might learn of a meta-analysis, due in a significant medical journal the next month, concluding that if British people reduce their fish intake there may be serious public health consequences, such as an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. It invites the authors to speak at a briefing for journalists, the public concern is the hook, and a release headed "Eat more salmon or less?" suggests that there is no foregone conclusion and that there is information to be gained from attending, without telling journalists from the outset that the briefing will be positive about fish.
A release coordinated with national events, seasons of the year, health promotion events, issues of current media interest or charity events may achieve greater impact and coverage. Its timing should suit the target audience as well as the organisation. A release about a product launch or an event is not left until the day before it, but sent early enough for an editor to decide whether the story will interest their readers and when to use it, since the editor may also need time to check the facts and sources or to rewrite parts of it to the publication's style and format. Nor is it sent so early that it gets buried on the editor's desk.
Structure and content
A release is more likely to be used when it is presented in the structure editors and journalists are used to, ordered as an inverted pyramid with the most important information first. That order can be difficult for medical writers used to research papers, where the most important information comes in the conclusions, whereas a release gets its main message across in the first sentence.
A release begins with a concise and compelling headline, usually an incomplete sentence or a question that encapsulates the main ideas of the release and grabs the reader's attention. A journalist would most likely meet "The risks and benefits of fish consumption" with a yawn and consign the release to the waste basket, although it encapsulates the event as effectively as "Eat more salmon or less?". Where necessary, a subheading, also called the strapline, carries supporting details, such as "Government urges people not to overreact on fish". A headline or subheading should never be in the past tense, because that makes the announcement sound like old news.
The first paragraph sets the stage for the story and should encapsulate all the main facts, and its first sentence should be the most powerful, because it makes or breaks the release. It should never start with a negative sentence. Together the headline, subheading, first sentence and first paragraph must grab the reader's attention and draw them into the story.
Later paragraphs give supporting information in descending order of importance, the most newsworthy and exciting aspects first, and answer who is launching the product or event or presenting the research, what the product or event is, when, by date and time, it will be launched, where an event will take place, and why it is happening and why people should be interested. For an event, they give the address and postcode and can supply a web link to a map of the location.
A release may include a comment from a senior person in the organisation, such as a manager or lead researcher, or from an external expert, which journalists can use as a quote to support their story. Quotations are used only with permission, and over-hyped, padded or meaningless quotes from staff are avoided, because they come across as biased. Statistics can add weight to an argument, and more when they are attributed to their source and give the specific finding, as in "Department of Health statistics released last week show the number of deaths from breast cancer has reduced by 3 per cent over the last 5 years".
A release carries the date it is sent and its release date, which tells the editor the general time frame in which the information is to be released, typed in bold or capitals, in forms such as "Release immediately", "Release on March 18" or "Embargoed until April 12". At its end it tells the journalist what to do next, to make their job easy, such as by mentioning the possibility of an interview or a photo opportunity. A notes-to-editors paragraph gives background on the organisation: when it was launched, its main areas of activity and any special achievements, which enhances the release's credibility. The contact person's name, address and telephone or fax number, and the organisation's name, address and telephone number as the source of the release, appear at the bottom so that journalists can get in touch for further information.
Style and checking
A release should be brief and to the point, as detailed as it needs to be in as few words as possible, with simple, concise sentences rather than long, protracted ones. It avoids overusing adjectives and flowery language, and it cuts hyperbole and claims such as "our service is absolutely unique" or "the world's number one painkiller" unless published research backs them up. Claims should be logical and substantiated, without puffing phrases such as "our amazing new product" or "this will be the best event this side of Christmas". Industry jargon and buzzwords such as "cost-effective", "cutting-edge", "revolutionary" or "one-stop-shop solution" are left out, because they are meaningless and tend to annoy journalists. Grammar, spelling and punctuation must be correct, because journalists are wordsmiths and badly written releases stand a good chance of being binned. Acronyms and abbreviations are avoided, and one that is needed is spelled out at its first use. The release is objective and written in the third person, with "he", "she", "they" or "it" rather than "I", "we" or "us", and a company is always singular, "it" rather than "they".
The writer and a colleague should both read the finished release, check all facts, dates, names, spelling and grammar, and confirm that the release:
- is informative and easy to read
- has a headline and strapline that grab attention and make a reader want to find out more
- will be understood by a journalist with perhaps limited medical knowledge
Checklist for writing a release
A checklist for writing a press release has the writer work through these points:
- Is the story newsworthy?
- Why is the release being written, and what should it achieve?
- Who is the audience, and how will they relate to the release?
- What should recipients do with the release?
- Follow the standard format: headline, opening paragraph, body text and closing paragraph.
- Follow the inverted pyramid structure, putting the most important information first.
- Make the headline and opening paragraph grab attention and include all salient facts.
- Make sure the release answers the questions who, what, when, where, why and how.
- Keep it punchy, without unnecessary adjectives and flowery language.
- Be factual and objective: do not embellish, and avoid over-hyped quotes that may come across as biased.
- Proofread the release so that it is grammatically correct and free of spelling mistakes and factual errors.
- Quote and reference all sources and statistics correctly.
- Send the release at the most opportune time for both the organisation and the media.
Delivery and monitoring
As of 2007, a printed release was to be typed on A4 paper, most commonly white, double-spaced with wide margins, in a plain font such as Arial or Courier at size 10 or 12 rather than a fancy one, with the organisation's logo if it had one. Releases were then increasingly sent electronically, and the advice was to contact recipients first to make sure they accepted them, to put the release in the body of the email in plain text rather than as an attachment, which recipients might delete as a possible virus, and to remove italics and bold, which some software displayed as illegible graphics. Many newspapers, journals and magazines then accepted releases by fax or email, and a posted release could be folded with the copy side out so that editors saw at once who it was from and what it was about.
Watching whether and how a release is used gives the best possible feedback. Releases that are used should bring benefits to the organisation, and releases that are not used may be too weak in style and content, to be improved next time.
Press releases and the reporting of research
Press releases issued by academic medical centres are often overblown or fail to put research findings in context, according to a study published in 2009. Its researchers drew 200 medical or health press releases at random from EurekAlert, the online database many journalists use: 64 of the 87 releases about animal or laboratory research explicitly claimed that the findings were relevant to human health, only 23 of the 64 about human intervention studies mentioned any side effect or other downside, and the researchers judged that 29% of all the releases overstated the validity or the implications of the study results. The researchers speculate that exaggerated media coverage of medical research may stem at least in part from poorly written press releases.
Journal press releases, which influence the content of news stories, were more common for observational studies than for randomised trials, at 50% against 17% (P<0.001), among 85 trials and 86 observational studies published in seven high-impact journals in 2013. The study, which collated the releases accompanying those studies and the resulting coverage in the top ten UK and US newspapers and the top ten English-language news agencies, concluded that study design was not associated with the likelihood or the amount of ensuing news coverage.
Press releases and scientific articles in IMRAD form are constructed in inherently different ways. An analysis at word, sentence and paragraph level of how biomedical articles become sensationalised in the media found that press releases use concrete nouns at a higher frequency and enlist verbs to carry a narrative forward, producing a more personalised and more interesting piece for the reader.