Just 3% to 45% of releases actually get the word out
PR professionals have been married to the traditional PR writing approach since Ivy Lee created the news release more than 100 years ago.… Read the full article
PR writing
Try second person for press release leads [Examples!]
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
How to write short quotes
Put the bite in the sound bite
Mark Twain once defined a sound bite as “a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense.”
So this quote, from The New York Times’ “Riches to Rags for New York Teenager Who Admits His Story Is a Hoax,” makes a lot of sense.… Read the full article
Write headlines for your PR target audience
Write about the reader, not about us and our stuff
Front-loading your headlines with your topic word just makes sense if your readers are going to encounter those headlines in online lists — a search engine results page, for instance, or your online newsroom.… 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.
Details make the difference
Go granular with PR leads
The internet coffee pot. Word of the year. The Dust Bowl.
Details like these grab attention and help readers see your big idea.… Read the full article
Master of metaphor writing
PNNL science writer shows how to communicate complex concepts
When Pacific Northwest National Laboratory science writer Tom Rickey wrote a release about the lab’s work “Making dams safer for fish around the world,” he didn’t get lost in the scientific gobbledygook.… Read the full article
Shake it up
Osborn Barr reimagines a press release
When Rachel McGrew, manager at Osborn Barr PR, wrote a release about a client product, her first instinct was to take the traditional route.… Read the full article