How to write a press release
Posted By Alfie ~ 18th April 2010
Eight ways to write a better press release:
How to write headlines
Posted By Alfie ~ 11th April 2010
Like most readers, a journalist will look at the headline before deciding whether to read your story. Before you send a press release, spend a long time making sure the headline has ‘a pull’. It should capture the essence of your story.
What makes a good story?
Posted By Alfie ~ 4th April 2010
What sort of stories can you write a press release about? There are some obvious things:
- A celebrity.
- Winning something.
- Raising money for charity.
- Doing anything new.
But just sending a press release saying you have won an award is not a story. It’s just information. How do you make it into a story? According to Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick, most stories are based on one of three plots:
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Finding an angle for a press release
Posted By Alfie ~ 20th March 2010
The opening paragraph in a news story is not just a collection of facts: there is always a point. All news stories have a hook, or angle – an issue or point of view that is the main theme of the article. A single event might suggest several possible angles.
The six questions all news stories answer
Posted By Alfie ~ 14th March 2010
All news stories answer the following six questions:
- Who was involved?
- What happened?
- Where did it happen?
- When did it happen?
- Why did it happen?
- How did it happen?
Finding your story
Posted By Alfie ~ 9th March 2010
You need to write a press release. You know it has to be a good story. It has to grab attention. It has to be remarkable. But how do you make what you do every day into something like that?
Why it’s easy to get your press release published
Posted By Alfie ~ 7th March 2010
In The Quality and Independence of British Journalism, a study by the Cardiff School of Journalism, researchers identified the following changes in national newspapers over the last 20 years:
- Two and a half times as many pages.
- More supplements.
- The number of editorial/news pages has almost tripled.
Fight back with your local paper
Posted By Alfie ~ 28th February 2010
In January, local actor Kate Ambler, left her bicycle in a bike rack outside her house overnight. The next morning she found it in a mangled heap. A neighbour had attached a note to what was left of the handlebars saying they’d seen a van delivering to the nearby Tesco reverse onto the pavement, over the bike rack and over her now crushed bike.
Despite having witnesses and knowing the exact time the accident happened, Tesco told Ms Ambler that because she didn’t have the registration number of the van, they simply couldn’t do anything.
I know what I would have done had that happened to me. I would have got very angry, sworn never to shop at Tesco again and spent two or three days imagining ever more ridiculous ways of getting even.
Ms Ambler wrote to her local paper.
How to report the news
Posted By Alfie ~ 17th February 2010
Old man to be set on fire
Posted By Alfie ~ 11th February 2010
A 71-year-old Hindu man from Newcastle won a legal battle to be cremated in an open air funeral pyre yesterday. Davender Ghai’s High Court victory sparked the following headlines:
Hindu healer wins funeral pyre battle (Independent)
Healer Wins Right To Be Cremated In Open Air (Sky News)
Hindu wins right to open-air pyre (Metro)
Hindu grandfather wins ‘human right’ to be cremated on open-air funeral pyre ( Daily Mail)