There’s always been a conflict between people who write for the press and those who try to get the press to write about their clients. And I’m not talking about how the former wish they made as much money as the later.
Journalists are taught to write in an inverted pyramid getting the most important who, what, when, where and why facts into the first few sentences. PR peeps embrace a similar philosophy, however their idea of the most important info always includes the client’s name and company, eventually getting around to whatever the press release might be about. Consequently, every press release gets rewritten by any journalist worth their salt.
It’s particularly ironic considering how many PR people started their careers as journalists, probably cursing the PR people for how lazy they are and how poorly they wrote. (Does this just prove that what goes around, comes around?)
At one time, the journalists were the sole gate keepers of public opinion. Today things are different. If public relations people can’t place a story on the front page of the Times, you can still blog, tweet and comment your way to viral nirvana.
Unfortunately, the PR peeps need to talk about their client doesn’t trump consumers’ need to speed read what they want. And make decisions in a fraction of a second about what’s interesting and clickable. The online paradigm — where only a headline or the first sentence of a press release is exposed in a news reader for a RSS feed — probably won’t engage the reader before the space is exhausted.
Here are some examples:
New City, NY – County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, Gordon Wren, Jr., Director of the County’s Office of Fire & Emergency Services, and members of the County’s volunteer firefighters’ community today unveiled…
or…
Clear Channel Airports introduced exciting changes to Oakland International Airport with
a new advertising program featured in both terminals.
or…
Privately held Noble Investment Group (“Noble”), a leading sponsor of private equity real estate funds and an integrated lodging and hospitality operating and development organization,
today announced…
Still awake? (Probably not.) The point is that EVEN if flacks succeed in getting their release into your newsreader the chances are slim and none that consumers will click. Unless you are the competition to the company sending out the release.
Recently, someone new to the PR business asked my advice about creating effective press releases. I cited the public communications gospel of Neil Greenberger, the press guy for Montgomery County, MD and a former Washington Post sports writer. “Rule #1 is make it easy for journalists,” says Greenberger. Write a good lead in your press release and make the story interesting. If it engages the journalist, they will eventually read down to the second paragraph to find out more about your client.
If more public relations people followed this rule, the Web would be a better place. Or at least a more interesting read.
Dave Zornow is editor of MediaNewsAndViews and co-publisher of NyackNewsAndViews, a hyper-local community news site in Nyack, NY.