The Media Pro

Do you want your press release to grab reader or viewer attention? Then you must learn some of the basics of news writing.

To promote a service or product through a news release, you should write your release like a professional news reporter.

That means – if you wish the news media to take you seriously – bringing on board Rudyard Kipling’s “Six Honest Serving Men”.

Your press release intro – the first one or two paragraphs – needs to answer the “Five Ws and One H”:

• Who? Who was involved?
• What? What happened (what’s the story)?
• When? When did it take place?
• Where? Where did it take place?
• Why? Why did it happen?
• How? How did it happen?

British poet and author Kipling called them his “Six Honest Serving Men”.

Bible of Good News Reporter

Today his lesson on good writing remains the bible of all good news reporters.

He summed it succinctly in this verse from the Just So Stories:

“I KEEP six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.”

A well-written news story – in contrast to a novel, short story or play – has an inverted pyramid structure.

The main thrust of the story, the important elements, should be at the top.

The intro – the first pars – must give all the main ingredients of the story. All the rest is amplification.

To put it another way: writing news is like the opposite of sex – the climax is at the beginning.

So remember, GRAB THE READER’S ATTENTION from the very start. Bear this in mind when composing your press release, and you won’t go too far wrong.