Sandra J. Paluzzi
The Bead Peddler®

This is the second of a two part installment on dealing with the press.  Please read last month's column before continuing.

As I previously said, I have my press releases written by a free lance professional.  Each release costs me 125.00.   However, I would feel quite comfortable writing a release which simply announced an event.  In fact, if you are planning a non-profit event, you might look up your local paper's website.  Some papers have an online form to fill out for submitting non-profit events.  Even if you have to write it yourself, an event press release is relatively straight forward.  A press release announcing a new product, business, or award would be harder to write.  But I will give you instructions for doing it yourself.   You may want to read other press releases online before doing your first release. 

The first line should read 'Press Release (MM/DD/YY) - For Immediate Publication'.  After that  list as much contact info as possible  in the the upper left hand corner of the release.    The first line should read Contact info and then list your name, phone number(s), address and email info.

After the contact info, you write your Subject Line, i.e. what you hope will be the headline.  The headline should grab the reader's attention and make them want to read the story.

A press release is written from the top down.  The most important info is given first.  The least important data is given last.  If editors need to shorten a press release, they will cut from the bottom up.  And if readers don't finish the whole release, they will have gotten the critical information in the first few paragraphs.

The first paragraph is key to a good press release.  It contains who, what, where, why, when and how.  In a word,  it summarizes the story. The following paragraphs illustrate and give depth to the beginning paragraph.  The final paragraph starts with 'For more information, please contact' and then repeats the contact info.

Be sure to use a spell checker.  Your press release shouldn't have any  grammatical or spelling errors.   The language should be straight forward and plain so that all readers can understand.  Shy away from technical terms, big words and flowery phrases. 

Save the press release in .pdf format if possible.  If you can't write in adobe, use a .txt format or embed the text in the email.   You'll want to send the release to the editor of the newspaper.  If the editor's email is not listed online, call the newspaper.  They will gladly give you contact information.  

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