About this Module
A press release is designed to make a journalist, news desk, freelancer or someone similar publicise a newsworthy aspect of your organisation. It’s a tried and tested way to gain exposure of your company, its products or its services. It’s also a piece of marketing that frequently goes in the bin, physical or electronic, either without being read or after just a quick skim.
How you help shade the odds of it being read is what is discussed in this part of the course. If it is read it will probably be remembered and may well form part of a news item that you see soon after. In some cases, it can become a news item published by someone else almost verbatim, so it pays to write it carefully.
You need to remember the Who and Why. Who is the press release written for? It’s not written for the general public; it’s written to attract and retain the attention of someone in the media who has access to a news outlet you want to appear in.
The ‘Why’ is equally important. Why should someone read the release and then use it as the basis for a news story? Because of that word – news. A press release must be tightly focused on what makes your company/product/services newsworthy right now.
Following is all the information you need to write an attention-grabbing and timely press release that will benefit your organisation.
On average, this module should take around one hour to read and absorb the lessons, and then one hour per assignment.