Sample News Releases

The three sample news releases available on pages 136-139 of “Becoming a Public Relations Writer” by Ronald D. Smith have a few common elements.

First, all three releases use the inverted pyramid of writing. Which means all three releases start with the most important information and work down to the not so important facts. In all three releases you leave the first couple sentences knowing the 5 W’s and H, who, what, where, when, why, and how. This is a good writing skill because then you know your reader will be informed even if they only read the first part of your story.

            A second common element in these three releases is that they are written from an unbiased journalistic point of view. They simply put the facts out there for the public, they do not tell anyone how to feel. The only point of views put into the releases are through quotes.

            These releases also include a good amount of background information about the organization or client they are representing. Exhibit 8.4 does this by including a boilerplate at the end of the release. A boilerplate is a paragraph, which gives the reader a general summary about the cause, or organization they have just read about. Exhibit 8.5 provides background information by giving facts about the art instructor whom is described in that release.

            Exhibit 8.4 and 8.5 have both included contact information at the end of the release. While exhibit 8.3 included its clients contact in the midst of the text of the release. Including the contact information in the middle of the release can be a bad idea because some people might miss it.

            Overall, although these three news releases might not be structured the same they give good examples as to three good ways they can be.