Lead with you in media relations pieces
It’s counterintuitive, but true: The product is never the topic. The program is never the topic. The plan is never the topic.… Read the full article
leads
Avoid announcements in press release leads
Don’t announce that you’re announcing
When I was editor of an executive magazine, I received dozens of press releases every day.
This was back in the day when releases moved on paper, so I read them over the trash can, giving myself just a few seconds from the time I picked the release up off the stack to the time it hit the circular file.… Read the full article
3 types of press release lead paragraphs to try
Choose benefits, news and feature leads
Are you still using the fact pack — cramming who, what, when, where, why and how into the first paragraph of your news release?… Read the full article
Six press release leads to avoid
How many of these have found their way into your releases?
Are you still using the fact pack — cramming who, what, when, where, why and how into the first paragraph of your news release?… Read the full article
Use WIIFM communication for news release leads
Move from event to impact to engage readers
Screenwriter Nora Ephron long remembered the first day of her high school journalism class.
Ephron’s teacher announced the first assignment: to write the lead for a story to appear in the student newspaper.… Read the full article
How-to story map: Green Apple Day of Service
Silver Anvil winner gets attention with tipsheets
When PR pros at the U.S. Green Building Council needed to round up resources in their Green Apple Day of Service, they didn’t write stories telling volunteers to get donations.… Read the full article
What lede (or lead) should you use for web content?
4 types of web leads to try — and 3 to avoid
Lede or lead?
You won’t find it in the Oxford English Dictionary. But the alternative spelling lede was supposedly created during the linotype era so as not to confuse lead with the strip of metal that was used to separate lines of type.… Read the full article
Anecdotes make good feature leads
To draw readers in, tell them a story
Here’s how Korbel Champagne Cellars topped a PRSA Silver Anvil Award-winning pitch:
Have you heard about the guy who mowed “Will You Marry Me?”
… Read the full articleHow to write a good feature lead with statistics
Prove it with a data point
Research shows … that nearly half of commuters text and drive … that one in three patients enters the hospital malnourished … and that 66% of women won’t kiss men with moustaches.… Read the full article
Description works for PR leads
Paint pictures in your readers’ minds
Imagine the first few hours in the recovery room following a hysterectomy or … ligament repair. Consider what post-surgical life has been like for some pets undergoing common surgical procedures; intense hours WITHOUT pain medication.