Press Release advice

How many editors read email press releases? Are fax releases still more effective?

by Phil Wiley

I was asked this question today in the forum I participate in at http://www.professionalwebhosting.com/forum/

here's my off-the-cuff answer....

As you know Dale, I work on a daily newspaper where we get around 50-75 press releases a day.

The majority come in by fax, maybe 80 percent. 17/18 percent will come in the regular mail, and just 2 or 3% by email.

From observing what happens in the newsroom I'd say that the fax ones get read first, because the day editor picks up the pile from the fax machine when he walks in at 7am.

But by the time I've walked in at 8am the majority of them are in the trash bin. He glances at them, reads the first few lines and makes a snap judgment on whether they're worth passing on to a journalist.

The snail mail comes in at 8.30. One of the office girls opens the pile and passes the press releases on to the day editor. The same thing happens. He trashes most of them.

Most of the journo's start at 9am. They hold a news conference where he gives each journalist the press releases appropriate to their "round". The business items to the business reporter, etc.

While this is going on the office girl checks the email and prints out the press releases....which are treated exactly like the faxed ones.

Before 10am the majority of press releases are thrown away and the rest are in the hands of the journalists.

If a press release comes in later in the day it's treated in the same way and trashed or passed on to a journalist. But if they're busy and already working on a heap of stories they often neglect following up on it, or leave it for a slack period.

So it doesn't matter how they came in. Fax, mail, email... they're all treated the same.

What does count is content.

What does count is news value.

What does count is an appealing headline and first paragraph.

And another thing that counts is that the press release contains clear contact details with - most importantly - a phone number where the journalist can reach someone to follow up on the story.

If a journalist can't get you on the phone forget it.

They're not going to email you. They're going to phone.

And unless it's an earth shattering story they're not going to try to reach you more than 2 or 3 times. So when you send a press release, whether it's by mail, fax, or email, make sure you're sitting by the phone waiting for those calls.