Journalists hate bad news releases so much they've launched a half-dozen Web sites with the phrase "bullshit" in the title to ridicule them. They make fun of the jargon and baseless claims, the flabby language and mechanical mistakes. You'd think public flaying and humiliation would be enough warning to companies trying to get messages through to key reporters. The journalists are TELLING you what they don't like. Take the fashion hint and don't do it.
Seems like simple enough advice to follow, yet there are so many bad news releases waiting in line to get pummeled on buzzwhack.com and its acerbic brethren that they might outlive the cockroach population after Armageddon. It's so easy not to make the mistakes that alienate journalists. They all emanate from one uber mistake: not understanding your audience or, worse, not even caring what makes them tick.
The most egregious examples are:
Long-windedness. Not knowing your audience (busy, skeptical reporters) will make you assume they're automatically interested in whatever you have to say just because you're saying it. You won't spend as much time writing compelling copy because you won't think you have to. You'll drone on forever, assuming they're hanging on your every word. Reality check: if they got through the first 60 words, you're ahead of the game. Most journalists won't even give you that much time to get your point across.
Jargon. If you think you're writing to people like yourself, you're going to fall back on buzzwords and inside baseball talk that means nothing to non-technical readers outside your company.
Complexity. Going nerd right from the beginning of a release and drowning the reader in gobbledygook is a waste of time. Even technology journalists rarely have technical backgrounds. Just telling them about a new technology, feature, or upgrade isn't going to get you coverage. It's just going to force them to search for the point and, very possibly, miss it altogether. Simplify the message, pare it down to its essential parts, and give the journalist the story angle. Why should their readers care?
Mechanical mistakes. They just make you look dumb, no matter how good the rest of the release is. If you use a contraction for a possessive, sprinkle commas over your sentences like sesame seeds, or can't tell the difference between "to, "too" and "two," why should anyone believe what you're putting out? They're not going to be dazzled by your brilliance; they're going to think you're careless and unprofessional. If you throw your first draft onto Business Wire without asking someone else to read and improve it, you're not just asking for trouble, you're advertising for it.
Forced cuteness. Humor and clever turns of phrase are a great way to drive home a point, but only if they're done well. There's nothing worse than a cliché or a bad pun in a headline. If you find yourself using phrases like "show me the money" or "getting caught in the Web," calmly back away from the keyboard until you regain your senses. You're better off taking a straight, informative track, using good content to tell the story instead.
Getting stale. Having just been warned against forced cuteness in the previous paragraph, don't overcompensate in the other direction and go stale. Your releases don't have to look and sound alike. If you see a clever opportunity, take it. A dose of creativity helps you stand out from the crowd in a positive way. Scroll through one of the press release wires and analyze how many of them jump out because of a good headline. Then follow the headline to see if the writer delivered on its promise with good body copy. Think of the impact that approach has on a busy reporter trying to find the unusual in a sea of ordinariness.
These are common, easily avoided mistakes. Make your public relations program stronger and you'll keep off the nasty Web sites that delight in dissecting bad writing.
