Effective Press Releases
| Published date | 01 December 1994 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435129410071372 |
| Pages | 24-27 |
| Date | 01 December 1994 |
| Author | Linda S. Ashcroft |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Public Relations
Public Relations (PR) will be effective only if it is
planned, and this planning should be part of the
strategic planning of an organization. While many
commercial organizations have professional PR
departments, many library and information
services are unable to employ PR professionals
because of limited resources. Therefore
information and library professionals have to
acquire PR skills. Management of the release of
information to the media and the development of
media relations will fall within the PR strategy
and, in the current climate of competition and
accountability, getting a good press is an
important management issue.
Good and Bad Press
Today library and information services often seem
to be getting bad press in the national and local
media in the UK. The building of the new British
Library frequently gets a bad press – a recent
example is the article entitled “Overdue and Over-
Budget Shambles of New Library” (Daily
Telegraph, 21 July 1994). At a local level, last
year a front page news story in the Liverpool
Echo was about an excessive library fine. At the
same time, one reads of good achievements in the
professional press. The professional press
obviously desires to chart good practice and new
developments within the profession but, when it
comes to the national or even local media, there is
competition with a whole range of news stories
from a variety of sources. Obviously the national
and local media want to present the most
newsworthy stories – they are in competition too
– and often bad news is very newsworthy.
Therefore your good news must be very attractive
to the media. Nevertheless it is important to be
honest. It is important not to oversell a poor
event – if it falls flat it will get a bad press.
Remember also that “you are not going to find the
media unblindingly and unquestioningly putting
out what you write. Industry and business need to
grow up, realize that there may be a downside to a
success story”[l]. Therefore, in order to get good
press at a local or national level, a knowledge of
the media is necessary and press (or news)
releases must be professionally produced.
Presentation
Presentation of press releases is very important.
Special press release stationery should be used
consistently and, today, if the stationery budget is
low, this can be produced quickly and easily using
desk top publishing facilities.
There are a number of essentials for press
release stationery. First, it should be clearly
headed “Press Release” or “News Release” in
large, bold letters, so that the media know exactly
what is arriving on their desks. Second, it should
display clearly the name of the organization, so
that the editor/reporter/journalist knows exactly
where it has come from. Then somewhere on the
stationery the address, phone and fax numbers of
the organization should be clearly displayed.
Furthermore, in keeping with corporate identity
rules, corporate colours should be used together
with the logo, from which the media will come to
recognize your organization. This is a distinct
advantage, provided that your press releases are
consistently professionally produced, as they will
be recognized within the mass that arrives on
news desks every day. The stationery should be
standard A4 size and the paper should be a
reasonable weight (that is not too flimsy) in order
to stand the amount of handling it can receive on
arrival.
Content
A press release should be no more than one side
in length, and should be presented in double line
spacing. Obviously, taking into account the space
already taken up by the preprint on your press
release stationery, this means that it must be
concise and to the point. A clear fount should be
used, making it easy to read. The media receive a
large quantity of releases every day and simply do
LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
24
Effective Press Releases
Linda S. Ashcroft
Library Management, Vol. 15 No. 8, 1994, pp. 24-27
© MCB University Press, 0143-5124
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