TEST 3 PR WRITING AND CRISIS PR WRITING THE INVERTED PYRAMID Begins with the summary lead Adds facts in a descending order of importance Done so that the story may be edited to fit available space by cutting off the end of the story nothing of significance lost Journalist Write from a neutral position P R Writes with a positive bias for the client Inside looking out point of view Makes editing easy for editor Biggest to smallest like a triangle Summary Lead Descending Facts Most Important Less Important Least Important News Hole Space that paper puts news your story has to fit here Feature Writing Not a big process fluffier THE SUMMARY LEAD 6 Questions Who What Where When Why and How Gives you all the info in 1 sentence That s usually how much people read Most of the time the WHAT is usually most important PRINT VS ELECTRONIC MEDIA LEADS Hard lead print Simple sentences Active voice 22 25 words maximum Soft lead electronic Simple sentences One thought that is easy to understand and recall Paragraphs are short 1 3 sentences Active voice As if it s happening now paints a picture fewer words John threw the ball ACTIVE The ball was thrown by John PASSIVE 18 20 words maximum First 2 3 words are throw away Ex Who Alpha Phi Sorority Why Raisin awareness on women s health When Saturday October 21st Where Civic Center Tallahassee What Red Dress Gala How Action Ticket sales Time to write The sisters of Alpha Phi Sorority will host their annual Red Dress Gala on Saturday October 21st at the Tallahassee Civic Center o Hard to write Depends on who you are writing the piece for o IMPORTANT who your audience is FORMAT FOR THE NEWS RELEASE Spacing typed double standard page size Paper White or light beige 1 5 left Identification Identify yourself the writer Release date Embargo date Date they should run the story or until certain conditions have been met Margins 1 right margin Length 1 page FORMAT FOR THE NEWS RELEASE 2 Paragraphs 1 2 sentence paragraphs Slug line more or or 30 30 or more It goes to another page States that you re done Suggested headlines copy editor What it s about catches their attention so they will read it Timing Deadline for whoever you re sending it to Using the internet Competing outlet how do you use it Proofreading Read slow read backwards B roll Footage to play behind reporter background How does the reporter want to receive the release Go ask Flesch Readability Formula Tells you what the education level is He said to make the language simpler so everyone can win MEDIA KITS Bio straight narrative Backgrounder Background info helps the story Is a type of feature Feature A special human interest story article that is not closely tied to a recent news event It focuses on particular people places and events and it goes into great detail regarding concepts and ideas of specific market interest More about the style written over the subject Case History How you got to where you are By liner The name date and often position of the reporter who has written a news story It usually appears at the top of the story Written by someone PR signed by someone else CEO Ex John Smith Staff Writer Memorandum Rare Usually brief written message or report from one person or department in a company or organization to another Is typically used for firms in internal communications Part of news release Pitch letter Sales pitch of a specific story Why you should cover it Round up article The writer interviews experts on the topic and get comments opinions and information Once he gathers material from the experts he writes a roundup of their responses and makes it into an interesting article Is about companies Ex Covers car industry vs GM Fact sheet AKA a one sheet is a presentation of data in a format which emphasizes key points concisely The layout is simple and often standardized using a table bullet points and or headings and is usually on a single printed page Can sometime be a summary of a longer document Position paper Arguing your point opinion on something Standby statement You write it when you re about to tell your side of the story A prewritten statement to use in case of emergencies Speech A form of communication in front of an audience NEWS CONFERENCES Held where it best suits the media unless the location itself is what is newsworthy Chroma key Put big wall in back of people to add or remove a background Ex A green screen so they can look like they are somewhere that they are not equipment Needs good lighting and a lot of plugs so reporters can plug in their Florida Press center In Tallahassee that is suitable for these types of events Domestic for Profit Corporation no longer active Press news agency Be mindful of media deadlines Hold for major events only Ex Kentucky Derby 1st Saturday in May If big news happens on Fridays it could stay running for a whole weekend o 3 reason they Professor Rayburn and friend waited to open horse rehab center until first Friday after Derby 1 Made sure pool was nice 2 Kentucky Derby ends and people with horses are still there 3 University of Kentucky had a championship basketball game the night before Built a Jacuzzi so female horses could get fertile Media Alerts Pay attention something big is gonna happen If you can get the information to the media in a quicker simpler way e g a news release do it EXCLUSIVES In general don t use exclusives Only gives to 1 TV station Shows favoritism towards press Limits exposure Only 1 opinion Only 1 audience An exception news of limited interest might get coverage if given as an exclusive Usually good for news that might not get run If you do Rotate the exclusives with the media don t play favorites High Visual TV Very Urgent Radio A lot of explanations Newspapers Ex Joe Biden s daughter gets a job in Macys Will send news release Advised to not do it Not important enough TALKING OFF THE RECORD In general don t do it It s tough to do Need to be very specific State how long when you re off the record If you must Establish the rules Offer the reporter something in return Army off the record off off the record o Takes reporters into another room and tells them the real story so they can Fill in the blank No audio writing Then they go back to the official room and they are told the official not completely true report Another version of off the record o You cannot tell who told you the info Ex You will write White House Informant instead of person s o Can t tell anyone the information you were just told and that
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