Freelancewritingtips.com

Mistakes to avoid when writing press releases

I LED some training recently, with an energetic bunch of PR people at their beautiful offices. I set a challenge to write a press release about a new company bringing new jobs to a city. The press release was to go to regional media.

It was an interesting exercise to see what they came back with. Overall, the standard of writing was high - but some subtle and not so subtle changes were needed to make their press releases more effective.

Examples of press releases - on behalf of a charity

ACCORDING to traffic stats, new readers to this blog find their way via my last post with examples of press releases in it. I also get the odd email now and again, asking me for examples.

With that in mind, I thought I'd introduce a new category, cunningly entitled 'Examples of press releases.' The following were written and distributed last week and resulted in regional TV, newspaper and radio coverage, as well as a future feature in a national specialist magazine. They were sent to individual named journalists or newsdesks.

One (an Appentice-inspired release for Compton Hospice, mentioning The Badger - see right) is here, on my company blog, and the other, which was re-jigged for various areas this week, is here.

See also: Examples of press release, index.

Some examples of how to write a press release*

* WELL, depending on your target media or journalist of course. I started to do PR work eight years ago. I was approached by a company director while working part-time as a sub on an evening newspaper after having my daughters.