It must be a slow news day, because The New York Times featured this half-page article about the art of
writing a news release for media consumption.
Actually, the article takes an interesting angle (at least I think so) about what types of phrases and buzzwords should be highlighted in news releases to generate media interest. Tom Gable hit the nail on the head with his comments. Phrases like “cutting edge,” “break through,” “innovative,” “the first” and “mission critical” are simply terrible because they are over used (beyond belief) and editorialize a press release (a real no no in our business). I’ve heard many a good journalist say that if he/she receives a release that includes one of these catch phrases, the delete button is automatically pushed. Think about it, how many products in one category can really be “the first”?
As you can see, the story really focuses in on gimmicks or PR word stunts that will help a release break through all the clutter to make a journalist look twice and potentially want to cover it in a story. I love the first example – “Toxic Ties to New Shower Curtain” – because it worked in that regard. The story was picked up by some big time media outlets like ABCNews.com and US News & World Report. And, just as quickly…the story was rebuked and dismissed first by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and then by some of the same media who initially covered it. If the organization behind this press release had the singular goal of obtaining major coverage and didn’t care that the story was eventually seen as a sham, then it hit a home run in terms of coverage. Somehow, I doubt Peppercom clients would view that as a positive though…
One PR stunt planner and the author of “Dirty Little Secrets of PR Buzz” is a proponent of using such phrases as “safe,” “easy,” “secret,” and “breaking” in press releases because they suggest that something is new and fresh. I bet this book will sell like hotcakes and that’s unfortunate because this concept is just so wrong.
The bottom line is that if you believe that leveraging gimmicks, stunts and “creative uses of words” in press releases will generate more coverage, then you’re either in the wrong profession, or please fire your supposed PR practitioner/agency and go hire a new one. Sure, the toxic shower curtain release generated coverage. But, I would submit that this type of pick up has an extremely low percentage (there’s a big difference in generating a second look versus actual coverage). And, even when it does happen, look at the end result. This organization looks worse after all the coverage (as its testing methodology was called into question).
It is true that every media outlet has fewer journalists these days, covering many more stories. And, we all know that the amount of releases and story ideas being emailed and sent to journalists has created an inordinate amount of competition to generate coverage for clients. But, one constant fact remains – the “guts” of the news or story within any press release is what really matters (of course, packaging the news in a creative way is critical too). And, those public relations professionals who build long term relationships with journalists won’t have to worry about drawing upon such shallow gimmicks because they only present real, substantive story opportunities to their media contacts. In fact, it’s safe to say that these relationships were most likely built on this very strategy.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that part of the story also focused on SEO (search engine optimization) strategies around building eyeballs on the Web for press releases. This actually has very little to do with traditional story building with media. So, the key word optimization strategies surrounding successful SEO are 180 degrees different and are based upon emphasizing the right words and phrases.
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