PR Hints and Tips
News Stories
BathStudent.com currently offers you the chance to have news stories published internally within the related department webpages.
If you have a sports or societies related news stories you can email the details to the Activities Administrator Kirby at: K.Littlewood@bath.ac.uk
All other news stories which you feel may be of interest to the entire student population should be emailed to Helen at: supromotions@bath.ac.uk.
Once it is on the BathStudent.com Homepage the newstory can be forwarded to the University Marketing team who could display this on the University homepage if relevant.
Hints and Tips
You may feel that you have a story which you would like to send to the local press. This section therefore provides you with detailed Hints and Tips on how to put together a press release. This may be useful if your club or society has achieved something you wish to publicise or if you yourself have something you want to write which you feel would be interesting for the local press.
Here are some handy hints and tips to consider when putting together a press release:
Before you begin, ask ‘What do I want to achieve?’
• This will help you to identify with the target audience and how best to reach them
Recognise what you can’t achieve – you can’t turn the audience into experts
• Your objective is to inform the audience about your project/news and why it matters, not to provide an education in your area of work.
Effective communication
• Decide on a clear message
• Put yourself in the audiences’ shoes:
• What knowledge do they have?
• What pressures are they under (i.e. time to read)
• What questions will they be asking? (easy reading is hard writing)
Communicating to the journalist
• Typically the journalist has no specialist knowledge
• They are under extreme time pressure – will have 2 minutes at the most to read your press release!
• Questions they will have:
What is this about?
Is this news?
Is it of interest to our readers/viewers?
News Stories & PR
• News stories are written using an inverted triangle structure
• Opening paragraph conveys crux of the story and explains why it’s important now.
• Stories also answer 5W’s and 1H question – ‘Who did What, Where, When, Why & How?’
Give yourself time to write the press release
• If you would like the press release to be checked by the Marketing & Promotions Coordinator, ensure you allow 3 working days as it can not always be looked at immediately.
• If you have an event on a Thursday, make sure the press release has been sent out by Monday – this allows the journalist time to plan your event into their weekly schedule.
Always send your PR email in the bcc field.
• When you type in the email addresses to go to the media contacts, make sure it’s in the ‘bcc’ field, and not the ‘to’ field
• If it’s sent in the ‘to’ field, all the recipients can see each others email – the ‘bcc’ field is used as a courtesy.
Don’t attach documents to the email
• Copy your press release into the body of the text – the email may get rejected by firewalls if you attach any documents.
• If the journalist needs photos, they will contact you directly.
Setting up your press release
• Headlines: 14 pt Arial, Body of text: 10 pt Arial
• Have 40 word sentences and 1 sentence paragraphs – this makes it clearer on the page.
• Don't use colours - some journalists work from home and they get annoyed if their colour cartridges are wasted.
• Stick to plain text e-mails, don't waste time doing fancy html arrangements on the page - there is no guarantee the reporter will have the right setting on their machine to receive it.
Be selective in who you send the press release to
• Don’t send the press release to everyone – you need to decide whether the story is appropriate for radio, TV or newspaper (it may be all three).
Other Elements to Consider
• You can include a Notes for editors section for additional information
• Provide contact details and ensure you are available.
• Don’t spend a long time trying to put together a catchy headline – it is likely to get changed if the story goes to print.
For more information or to arrange a meeting with The Marketing and Promotions Co-ordinator Helen Freeman Contact: E: supromotions@bath.ac.uk T: 01225 386806