When working as a journalist, I keep my eyes peeled for certain topics. When I read a press release, I expect it to be about the topic in the headline and introductory paragraph, but last week I found a second story embedded further on in a press release. I left this out of the article I was writing, but it happened that this second story was of more interest to me than the main one.

This could have been dangerous for the company sending the press release as the second story could easily have been missed or ignored. They’re lucky as I’ve taken the effort to interview them for a second article, so they’ve managed two out of one, but they very nearly threw away that second story.

I suggest sticking to one story per press release. Many businesses struggle to find any interesting stories, so it’s best to use them sparingly. It also helps to create a flow of interesting stories to maintain awareness.

Busy journalists and editors can skim the beginning of a press release and never reach the bottom paragraphs. Whether that’s right or wrong, it’s not worth the risk of wasting time and money invested in your public relations programme.

Well, stories don’t tell themselves: we need storytellers.

At the start of what will probably be a very challenging year, it would be very easy to just give up after reading some of the doom and gloom press reports and opinion pieces. But wait a minute? Do you know anyone in business who is busy or who has just won a substantial order? We do. And just now a client phoned with a new editing commission.

Life goes on. Business goes on. If we let them.

But if nobody hears that businesses are winning orders, signing new contracts and achieving other successes, the doom and gloom stories will dominate everyone’s thinking.

I’m not suggesting we gloss over major challenges for businesses, many of which are not directly of their own making, but let’s aim for a more balanced picture.

How can we achieve this?

While some businesses are all to quick to send out a press release with news that is more important to themselves than to anyone else, many with real news don’t recognise its value. I usually find that most businesses have something interesting to say about themselves. A bit of thinking about how this could be of interest to others could develop some powerful public relations material.

When I work as a journalist, businesses often send me press releases that are actually sales pitches. Where I have time, I talk to them to find if there is an underlying story that can be developed into an interesting article. Often there is.

Now, not every journalist has the time or inclination to do this, so it is best to think your story through before sending your press release out or contacting the media.

What help will this be? If some PR can raise awareness of your products and services or generate new enquiries and sales, it will help not only your business but also the wider economy. That could be useful if the recent 2.5% VAT rise is affecting your sales.

So what’s the story?

Here are some thoughts on how to improve chances of obtaining press coverage distilled from my experience of magazine and newspaper writing and editing since 1997.

1. Get news to the right person first time. Check out a publication to see what type of material it uses. Different journalists will cover different sections or topics: find out who deals with the type of news you’re sending. A sports correspondent won’t be very thrilled to receive a press release on innovations in the packaging industry. Many publications list the names and even contact details of journalists or you could even phone up and ask.

2. Submit your press release or news in good time. The deadline for inclusion could be days, weeks or months before publication. If you have time-critical news, eg to publicise an event on a specific day, make sure you get all the information in before the deadline, otherwise you’ll miss any opportunity of getting it publicised.

3. Make sure a press release is relevant to the publication. If it’s a local paper, customise the content to suit the readership in that area. Show how the news will affect local people or what’s in it for them. Local interest or relevance to the specific readership is important.

4. Put in basic facts, figures, dates and check them. Journalists aren’t psychic and don’t want to play guessing games.

5. Make sure that your story is of interest to readers, not just yourself. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that not everyone may share your excitement at your news, so be realistic.

6. Be available if a journalist wants original comment or further details. It’ll be a waste of time if your news is left out because they couldn’t reach you.

7. It’s natural for people new to public relations not to follow the above advice, but amazingly some PR professionals don’t either. If you use a PR consultant or agency, be certain that they target media effectively, are aware of deadlines and provide each publication with what it wants. Otherwise, why are you paying them?

That’s my view from the journalist side, which I apply when producing press releases from the PR side.

z2zine next: what’s the story?

Follow us on twitter @z2zine