PR pros get attention with how-to stories
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
leads
Avoid the suitcase lead
Try a bikini lead instead
Some folks write “suitcase leads”: They try to cram all of the story elements into the top. Instead, make yours a bikini lead, and cover just the most interesting essentials.… Read the full article
Avoid announcements in feature writing 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
How 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
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 articleEngage readers by writing in the second person
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
Move from event to impact in PR writing
Focus news stories on MOI
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
PR leads: 25 words or less
Get to the point faster
“‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’ The creation of the universe has a 10-word lead!” writes John McIntyre, copy desk chief of the Baltimore Sun.… Read the full article
3 types of PR leads to try
Stop using the fact pack, ‘today announced’
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
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.