If writing press releases is part of your job, then one of the first things to remember is that while your ultimate target audience is the readers of the news, the media as a vehicle for publishing the news is just as important.

Much of what you write in the press release is not needed and usually not published by the media. Gaining media attention or interest for your story should therefore be your first goal, and that will require making the story noteworthy.

If the story is about a new product or service, then you as a writer need to highlight what sets it apart from the rest. If there is nothing worth highlighting, such as a unique selling point, then it is unlikely that any news will break. Journalists always look only for what is newsworthy.

One of the biggest mistakes product or service providers make is that press releases contain too much technical detail or overemphasize numerous features or functionality. If there is nothing different or outstanding among the many things mentioned, then there is not much that attracts or attracts the attention of journalists to write about it.

Vendors often think that the information in the press release is what end users want to read, but often those details are not newsworthy for publication. Even if it is published, it will often be placed at the end of the story. The information or text placed at the end of the news, depending on the space available in the newspaper or other media, can be raised by the editor or janitor to make way for other more outstanding news.

When writing a press release, therefore, a good approach is to use the ‘reverse pyramid’ methodology, where the most important is placed at the top and the least important at the bottom. The first paragraph, as the introduction of the press release, should summarize the key points of the entire story to answer at least three of the five ‘W’s and one ‘H’ (5W+1H): who, when, why, what , Where and how.

Within the press release, at least one or two quotes from a spokesperson should be included as standard practice. This is because journalists generally prefer to have someone say something within the story to eliminate monotony. This is especially true for a backstory.

In short, it means that when writing press releases, always remember that the media plays a very important role in what is published, therefore the content must be newsworthy.