The truth about Press Releases
Press releases are a fundamental part of media relations work and one of the main ways you can share your news with journalists.
But unless you work in PR or comms, knowing how they exactly work and what they can actually achieve is somewhat of a mystery. For instance, just because you’ve issued a release to the media, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get any coverage.
In this blog, former journalist and Get Ahead VA team member, Sanina Kaur, sheds some light on the world of press releases.
Q. What are press releases?
In a nutshell, they’re documents that contain news about organisations. Back in the day, they used to be printed off and shared with journalists (and even faxed to them!) but these days, they tend to be Word documents that are emailed across to the target media.
Q. Who uses them?
Organisations and PR professionals to share news with the media. And they’re used by the media to generate stories for their readers.
Q. Are they difficult to create?
Not at all! The thing that is ‘difficult’ however, is making sure that a) your releases contain information that’s newsworthy and b) are going to get picked up by the media. As mentioned at the start of this post, just because you’ve issued a media release, doesn’t mean it’s going to generate coverage…
Q. What are they used for?
From a business perspective – to raise your brand profile by generating media coverage. From a journalist’s perspective – to form the basis of news stories or provide them with articles that can be used in their entirety (the latter is the ideal for businesses).
Q. What’s the one thing you should never forget?
Is your media release newsworthy? You may feel that what you’re writing about is ‘news’, but will it be considered as that in the wider world? If you’re not sure, speak to a PR professional, as your angle can make all the difference between your releases sinking and soaring.
We’ve provided you with a top-level overview of press releases, which we hope you’ve found useful. For more information or to discuss your PR requirements with us, contact us at office@getaheadva.com or 01483 332220.
