WRITING PRESS RELEASES

While some newspapers are shameless in their as-submitted use of press releases, the Observer has a policy against just that thing. We appreciate news releases, but if the story is interesting enough to be in the paper, we’ll assign a reporter to follow up.

With that in mind, you should prepare a release with all the information necessary to pique our interest and to allow us to move forward with the story. Make your release brief and to the point; newspapers receive hundreds of e-mails, faxes and letters – each has only seconds to capture the editor’s attention.

The most important consideration is determining if the event/product/personal accomplishment is of interest to the readers in Woolwich and Wellesley townships. The Observer is a community newspaper addressing a local audience.

After that hurdle, we need to know the facts: who, what, when, where, why and how.

Who?
We need to know who’s involved and how they’re connected to local readers.

What?
Don't feel you need to give us a three-volume set of details. All we need to know is the purpose of event. In a nutshell, what is the story? It should take no more than two or three sentences to tell us the essence of what is happening. We will get the full details when we follow up.

Why?
There are at least two ways of interpreting this question. The first has to do with the motivation of the cause or event. Why are people doing what they are doing? The second has to do with relevance. Ask yourself: Why should thousands of readers know about this cause or event? What impacts does it have locally?

Where?
Naturally we can't cover anything we can't find. Always include some kind of map or address where we can find people or places.

When?
This seems kind of silly to include, but people often forget to tell us when something did, is, or will be happening. Keep in mind the publishing date of the paper. We go to press on Thursday, so anything we get on Friday will not go into our Saturday publication.

How?
This is where some of the detail comes in. How did the story happen? What are some of the events leading up to the story? Background in minimal doses is always helpful to us. It gives us a chance to approach sources with intelligent questions.

This all sounds very complicated, but you should be able to answer each question in a single sentence. It shouldn't take more than one faxed page. Anything more than that in our business is somewhat daunting and time consuming. If you can be as concise and informative as possible, that will help us in our job.

It is good practice for an organization to appoint one person to be its spokesperson. This makes it easier for your organization to establish rapport with the Observer.

Following these guidelines will help you get your story in our paper.