How To Get Your Press Releases Noticed

Here's How:

1. Narrow down your who, what, when, and where. You can even make these easy, bulleted points in a font size slightly larger than the rest of the release. Make them easy to find with a centralized placement on the page. Pull a simple yet catchy headline out of your "what." Your task is to grab the eye of the reader very quickly, so ask yourself what would catch your eye in a flash.
2. Keep it at a page. If you go over, your pages are likely to get detached and separated, or just annoy a journalist who has to flip through multiple pages of superfluous bloviating. Your topic may be of the utmost importance to you, and you could probably talk all day about it, but your job is to convince the journalist that it's important enough to make the paper. You can easily turn him or her off with wordiness. Make your point well in the shortest amount of space possible. You can elaborate later, but only if you get the chance by making it past the news assistants and onto the right desk.
3. Don't tell a journalist how to write the story. I can't emphasize enough how this can blow a press release out of the water. You may have a great vision in your head about how the story could turn out, but no editor, photographer, or reporter will want the submitter of a press release telling him or her how to do his or her job. Consider yourself a helping hand: Offer quotes, offer sources, offer photo opportunities or stock pictures, but don't become the reporter, editor, or designer. Building good relationships for the future is as important as getting that first story idea through.
4. Get your contacts in order. What's one of the biggest mistakes I've seen on press releases over the years? Addressing it to the executive editor of the paper. It likely won't wind up on his or her desk, and once there it probably won't get any attention simply for the fact that the editor has hired a whole able staff to weed through press releases for him. Most likely, the editor's assistant will stop the release in its tracks and shove it over to the city desk anyway. Address your releases to the city (stories) or photo editor (call and get the name and proper spelling) or reporter or columnist who covers that beat.
5. Decide your mode of transmission. Snail mail, fax, or e-mail? One is not necessarily certain to get the attention over another. If you're sending e-mail, be sure to mind your message length, don't weigh down what can be pokey newsroom systems with big photos or graphics in the message, and don't send attachments. Make sure the proper contact's name is in the recipient's line, and if you cc do it blindly -- no news organization is going to be jazzed by seeing you sent the hot tip to everyone else on the seaboard. Be aware that bulk mails often end up in spam folders, so take the time to personalize.
6. Give the news organization enough advance warning. Here's the scoop -- unless it's a really slow news day or a super-hot story, news organizations are unlikely to drop everything and send somebody to cover your event with a day's notice. Reporters and photographers usually already have schedules laid out, and editors already have an idea of what's going on the pages. Your job is to work your way into that schedule by giving the staff enough lead time to fit you in. Unless it really is breaking news, give at least a week or more notice. But don't send it a month beforehand, because editors and reporters forget.
7. Give it a couple of days, then follow up to ensure receipt. Yes, you're tempted to pick up the phone right away and see if they're interested in your story. But you have few opportunities to call or e-mail editors and reporters before crossing that fatal line into nagging. And if you waste that call too soon, you'll catch the reporter or editor before he or she has even had a chance to read your press release. By giving it a couple of days, you're acknowledging that you're dealing with busy people and respecting the fact that it takes time to get to your release. By following up, you show it's important to you.
8. Be available to editors and reporters. Give them every opportunity to follow up with an e-mail or a phone call. Provide cell phone numbers for contacts associated with the event. Put these at the top of the press release, clearly labeled as contact names and numbers/e-mails. Be professional -- make sure that the editor isn't being given a phone number that might be answered by a 3-year-old when time is tight and they're trying to call for information.
9. Send a postmortem when applicable. So you weren't able to get live coverage for your event. Follow up as soon as possible -- don't let days pass and become old news, but hop on it within the hour -- with information about what happened at the event, key turning points, memorable quotes, even images available for the newspaper's use. Stick to the facts and don't get overly cute or sassy.
10. Don't give up if you strike out once. When it boils down to it, your news or event might have just been something that the newspaper was not interested in putting on its pages. Don't take it personally and keep submitting items as needed in the future. Take the opportunity to make some contacts in the newsroom, and check out the publication's pages to get a better idea of what topics are of interest to them. Use this knowledge in later press releases: "As your paper covered the May 1 rally with such care, you may be interested in speaking with another key figure in the immigration debate..."

Tips:

1. Be concise!
2. Focus on the story rather than hyping a sponsor or organization.
3. Check your spelling, grammar, and correct spelling of contacts' names.
4. Allow adequate lead time.
5. Follow up -- but don't hassle harried news crews.