noun
plural noun: press releases
an official statement issued to newspapers giving information on a particular matter.
Press releases were probably the first thing thrown at me when I started working at the News Desk.
They seemed relatively easy. However, it was so tempting to just copy and paste the work into the system - then that would be considered laziness and possible plagiarism. We don't want that now do we.
The editor expected me to, well, be the editor of that piece! Grammar checks were essential, even the nitty gritty punctuation gets noticed, as well as changing the style of the article to fit our standard criteria.
Press releases can contain all the factual information about the event, the company and the people involved. Writing them up allowed me to look busy if I didn't have many telephone calls from the public asking me to write about their achievements / concerns / witnesses etc. It also helped improve my editing skills and proofreading.
Press releases are a quick and informative way to fill up a newspaper. (Not all of it of course, otherwise what's the point in us journalists?)
Here are ways for journalists to write up press releases:
6 ways journalists can use press releases effectively.
AND here is the opposite - Information for all you PRs on how to write good press releases for us Journalists. I'm not saying we are the superior - we need YOUR help to add factual information into the stories!
Press Release writing tips
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