Writing LECTURE NOTES Must be a good writer to be in Public Relations The difference between PR and a Journalist is o Journalist writes from the outside looking in o PR writes from the inside looking out o When a PR person sends in an article to a news place the article won t stay exactly the same news people will probably edit it o The newspaper doesn t have to print your article Inverted Pyramid Summary lead Most import 2nd import 3rd least o Begins with summary lead Answers 6 questions who what when where why how Try to fit all of these questions in one sentence usually the what is most important and you lead with it Print vs Electronic media leads o Hard lead print Begins with most important thing first Simple sentences Active voice not passive voice active is less words and more memorable talk about things that are happening now 22 25 words max o Soft lead electronic Simple sentences it s easier for the audience to hear short information Active voice 18 20 words First 2 3 words are throw away we have to assume that the audience missed the first 2 3 words Example of inverted pyramid o Who Alpha Phi Sorority o Why Raise awareness about women s heart health o When Saturday Oct 21 o Where Tallahassee Civic Center o What Red Dress Gala o How Auction to raise money Summary Statement Alpha Phi Sorority will host the Red Dress Auction Gala in Tallahassee Civic Center on Saturday October 21 to raise money and Awareness about women s heart health Format for news release o Spacing typed double spaced o Paper white gray off white o Identification identify yourself writer and contact info o Release date another term embargo release date when its okay to run the story o Margins 1 inch left 1 inch right o Length try to fit it all on one page the more pages you have the less likely it will be read 2 3 sentence paragraphs o Paragraphs 2 3 sentences o Slug line 30 means more to read dashes mean there is more 30 means end page o Suggested headline should leave a suggested headline for news people o Timing need to know deadlines for news o Using the internet news is updated via internet constantly Important to know how the reporter wants to receive the article personally delivered email fax etc o Proofreading no substitute for proofreading Fog Flesh computer program tells you what level of education your writing is in Media Kits can be in pocket folder can be clever not cute o Bio straight and narrative o Background background info o Feature not hard news o Case history o By liner written by one person and signed by another ex PR person wrote it CEO signs it because they re more credible to the public o Memorandum internal piece may help explain rarely included o Pitch letter sales letter about the story why it s of interest o Round up article about class of business in general ex automotive industry instead of the ford industry o Position paper arguing a point o Standby statement written for if you get in trouble o Speech News Conference rules o Held where it best suits the media unless the location itself is what is newsworthy Florida Press Center in Tallahassee is the best place in Florida to do news conferences he held his news conference at the horse place on FRIDAY so there would be coverage over the weekend also his personal news conference story o Be mindful of media deadlines he held his conference at 10 am so news people had time to get there and back to the news station o Hold for major events ONLY o If you can get the info to the media in a quicker simpler way ex news release then do Exclusives news story given to only ONE TV Station Radio Station etc o In general don t use exclusives not good to use because it shows favoritism or news stations will think you re acting like you own them and they will stop covering your news o An exception news of limited interest might get coverage if given as an exclusive o If you do exclusives rotate with media by giving exclusives to different news stations Talking Off the Record organization tells the whole story info but reporters can t take notes or record and the people speaking can t be named directly o Military uses this a lot o In general don t do it Reporters don t like to do this because they can t associate names with the information given o If you must go off the record establish the rules and offer the reporter something in it each time return Make sure the reporter knows the conversation is off the record for the entire time and that the reporter commits YES to going off the record Nothing can legally stop the reporter from publishing the story anyway the reporter ethically shouldn t do it give them something in return because they are doing you a favor Managing Crisis LECTURE NOTES Crisis any situation that can affect the well being of an organization Crisis vs emergency emergencies can happen all the time but aren t always crisis s ex fire alarm going off it an emergency bomb blowing up is a crisis Timeframe of Crisis o Shock o Anger o Siege mentality called cacooning post 9 11 people stopped going out stayed at home with families this hurt the economy o Adjustment people eventually went out again post 9 11 o Adaptation post 9 11 airports are extremely secure Types of crisis o Fire o Explosions o Product tampering ex gerber baby food had small slivers of glass in it Tylenol crisis some Tylenol was poisoning people o Law suits tobacco lawsuits lawsuits can take a business out o Environmental damage ex EXXON BP oil spill o Terrorism terrorism just wants to disrupt things sometimes lying about terror plans but things are still disrupted because of it Ramifications Results of a Crisis o Stock devaluation o Decrease in consumer confidence o Loss of public trust Types of Crisis o Immediate one that s here now and were in the middle of it ex school shooter o Emerging crisis not here yet but we can see it coming o Sustained crisis crisis that does not go away damage lasts a long time people don t forget ex EXXON is still dealing with BP oil spill Communicating during a crisis more than half of the fortune 500 did not have a crisis plan need to plan for crisis in advance o Do not speculate on cause of crisis if you don t know the cause don t guess say we don t know until the cause is confirmed o Make your point and repeat it often have talking points practice talking points o Establish yourself as the most authoritative source you know what s going on make them trust you PR people say tell it all tell the truth and tell it quickly The
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