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Reasons reporters will delete your press release

PR Daily News had a short article on five reasons a reporter will delete your news release. Let's forgo the irony that they used the digit 5 instead of using the word five in the article headline (a basic CP style rule), the five reasons a reporter will delete your news release were:

  • Send it to their personal email
  • Include the phrase ‘For Immediate Release.’
  • Fail to personalize it
  • Include a ton of copy and don’t hyperlink.
  • Include a typo     

Keep in mind this article was written by a reporter. While you may think that advice from a reporter must be wholly accurate, I'd reconsider that assumption. I think PR people can tell you far better what will or won't cause you to lose traction with the media (because they've approached thousands of journalists... and not all journalists are the same!)

For instance, I'd disagree with his second and fifth point. Yes, you should never have a typo, but a reporter is not going to pass on a news item simply because there's a single typo in the news release. Yes, 1 out of 100 of them will, but the vast majority won't (unless it's a serious typo - for instance, instead of typing orange you type orangutan).

Also, 'for immediate release' is often a standard part of the news release template format. Again, I simply cannot imagine a reporter passing on a news item because of those words. Most reporters understand that the term 'for immediate release' is used more for the news release wire than for the journalists themselves.

Instead of looking at what will get your news release deleted, I think it's better to look at what will get your news release considered by a reporter. Some of the key variables that contribute to journalists taking an interest in your news include:

  • Having approached the reporter in the past so it isn't the first time they've heard of you
  • Contextualizing your announcement in relation to a bigger narrative and/or past stories the jourrnalist has written (personally I think this is the most important variable of them all)
  • Having a compelling headline that almost tells the story in-and-of itself.
  • Identifying value-add elements beyond the news release (spokespersons, statistics not mentioned, collateral, etc.)
  • Including links to video-content or images that expands on the news release
  • Keep your email as short as humanly possible (but no shorter than it needs to be to communicate the value of the story)
  • Pitch the right journalist (this is the number one mistake a lot of PR people make, pitching the wrong journalist. If your tech product is enterprise focused, don't pitch the consumer tech editor!)
  • Offer (if possible) external sources that augment your announcement - analysts and customers are great for this. 
 So there you have it. If you have all the above you'll be successful, even if you have a typo!

The key to approaching reporters is for your communication with them to impress that:

1) Your news matters to their readers
2) You have all the things they are going to need in writting their story
3) Your news factors in to larger trends / narratives playing out in the media

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