Press release - Things to Avoid
Press release - Things to Avoid
There are a variety of ways to form the intro to your press release. Aside from the guidelines already mentioned, it’s best to avoid ever starting your piece with a question. An interrogative lead is never a professional way to write news.
Although you might feel that it piques the reader’s curiosity, all it will do is waste the reader’s time, and that will cause them to skip your item altogether. Don’t say “Will the PTA raise enough funds to buy new computers for the school” when you can say “The PTA will hold a fundraiser Monday night in an attempt to provide the school with all new computers.”
Additionally, don’t try to cram everything into one sentence if it seems to overload the information. If the five W’s won’t fit gracefully into the first sentence, then cut out the least important information, and save it for the second sentence. There is no need to practice deliberate overkill just to follow news formatting.
Just as you shouldn’t lead with a question, you also should never lead with a negative sentence. If the PTA meeting was rained out, don’t write “The PTA did not have its meeting Monday night due to bad weather.” Say, “Rain spoiled the fundraising efforts of the PTA Monday night…” Or, even better, if something is going to replace the thing that did not happen, mention that first: for example – “The PTA will hold a meeting Tuesday night to take the place of Monday night’s meeting, which was rained out.”
