Know About the Attributes Journalists Appreciate in a Press Release

How to know whether your PR is getting enough attention or not? The easiest way is to incorporate these attributes in your PR and provide a catchy press release headline.

Are you wondering how to know whether journalists did like your press release or not? If this is the question you can’t get your mind off then here you will have the solution. From interesting topics to writing styles, these attributes will give your press release the zest to win over every journalist it reaches. If you have interesting news and at least one good writer then you are good to go. But if you don’t have any of these two options then you need to go through the longer road to success. With these points, you can craft a PR pleasing to every journalist.

What Do the Media Fancy in a PR? 

A news release should give the journalists everything they need to write a story in a compelling way, so that, the PR grabs the attention of the readers. They will help you to reach your target audience and it is your job to convey the details to the journalists. To get it started you can vouch for a good and catchy press release headline to grab the attention of the media. Apart from that you can make sure the following points are in your press release write-up.

1. The Pre-pitching Aspects of a PR:

Before you send your press release to the journalists make sure these attributes are a part of your content. These will premeditate the initial credibility of your company resulting the success ultimately, in the long run.

• One Announcement at a Time – One press release should have one news item and all the details about that newsworthy story. If, you have two or more than two announcements to make, then use individual press releases to convey each message.
• Don’t Use Press Releases for Promotions – This is a great marketing option but making it seem like one can be de-motivating for your entire distribution and your company as well. Avoid promotional words or attractive adjectives while writing a PR.
• Answer These Six Questions – What, who, when, where, how, and why. Use the press release to convey the answers to these questions on the specific topic you are writing on.

These are the pre-pitching steps that you have to pre-determine and set your intentions in a way to publicize about your company is a dignified way to acquire exposure but not an advertising way.

2. Test the Newsworthiness of Your Story:

While you are waiting for journalists to share that they are willing to translate your news to broader platforms, you should know they are judging your PR on the basis of the TRUTH test of your story. TRUTH is the acronym for Topical, Relevant, Unusual, Trouble, and Human Interest.

• Topical – Is your news for the moment, new, and timely? Or people are talking about it or not?
• Relevant – Is your news relevant to your target audience?
• Unusual – Is your news something people know or expect? Or it will surprise the audience? In the era of social media, a journalist would prefer to cover an unusual story that is prone to more clicks and can drive better traffic to their website.
• Trouble – How you are solving the problem and showing it.
• Human Interest – Does your PR interest people? What impact will it have on your target audience and on the comprehensive society?

Your story must have at least three aspects out of this five-rule TRUTH game. Having four of these attributes will give a better chance to win the attention of a journalist.

3. Best PR Principles

With these following principles, your press release can thrive. Make sure you are following these rules each time you are writing a press release.

• Headline – Short, simple, don’t cross 110 characters (with spaces)
• Dateline – To prove you are offering updated information
• Intro/ Lede – Offer an engaging and short overview of the story, including essential facts and figures.
• Body – From answering the aforementioned questions to providing an explanation of your story, this is a writer’s playground to win attention. Offer every piece of information from the important to the less important.
• Facts – Journalists like facts and numbers, so make sure you deliver them all you can allow to provide.
• Quotes – Providing a quote will bring better aspects to your news, and placing a quote on the topic will make it more enriched.
• Videos/ Photos – Multimedia is important, so make sure you offer some photos along with your PR, relevant to your story.
• Source – To provide credibility add Cite your sources, and anonymous sources will not help.
• Boilerplate – Introduce your company along with every necessary detail in one at-a-glance view.
• Media Contact – Provide the contact information of your spokesperson in case you have any follow-up questions.

The basics of PR writing don’t end here. You need to follow the third-person rule while writing your PR. The sentences of the PR must be short and written in simple sentences. In this way, you can reach everyone easily. Also, try not to add any industry jargon to make your PR unnecessarily over complicated.

These are the basics of press release standards that you need to follow in order to keep your press release stand out from the crowd. Journalists get numerous stories each day, if you don’t want your press release to be in the spam box then use these methods to ensure attention. These attributes will help you to gain their attention. The amount of content journalists have to wade through every day is unimaginable, and these aspects will assure you to provide the attention you have been willing to acquire for a long time.