News Releases: Why and How-To

News Releases: The Basics

The news release is considered the backbone of all PR writing. 

It is the information that could be made into a news article. News releases take on a specific form of writing and formatting to convey the important details of a certain happening. Formatting includes a news flag, organization identification, contact information, distribution date, intended use date, headline (& subhead), dateline, end mark, more line, slug line, and editor’s note. News writing follows an inverted pyramid style (explained below).

How To Write A News Release:

When writing a news release, you use an inverted pyramid style of writing. This starts with a summary of the news lead, includes a benefit statement, followed by info/action statement, then any secondary details, and ends with background information and organization identification.

Step 1: summary of the news lead

The lead is the most important information to the story. The who, what, where, when and how; the necessary pieces of the story.

Step 2: benefit statement

This is the "So what?" part of the release... Why is this important to the reader? What do they get out of it?

Step 3: info/action statement

The info or action statement is where you include your call to action or any information you have for those interested in learning more about the subject of your news release.

Step 4: secondary details

Here, you can add supporting info for the news lead that wasn't pertinent to the story but may be helpful if the reader has chosen to read the entire release.

Step 5: background information

In this section you can provide more context for your report.

Step 6: organization identification

At the very end of the release, you can explain who you, or your agency is. This could be used by the journalist in the article so, keep it concise.

It is as easy as 1, 2, 3... or in this case 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!