The Onion News receives a large number of press releases, advisories and mailings from companies both large and small. Generally the large companies do it right, and most of the small companies or events get it wrong… but sometimes event the big guys don’t do it right.
This document shows you how to do it right, not just for The Onion News but for any media outlet in North America, these guidelines are standards that everyone is expected to adhere to. Most large media are much less forgiving about this stuff than we are.
What is it?
Is it a Press Release, a Media Advisory, or a simple mailing? A press release is something that you want media outlets to reprint verbatim on their site, these have the best chance of being re-printed because they are the least work for the media, provided they are properly formatted. A Media Advisory is a document telling a media outlet about something you think they might want to know about. It is then up to the media to decide how to proceed, write an article, contact you for details, etc… A mailing is something you are sending directly to the public, and may also send to the media, these can be formatted however you want, but are likely to be ignored by the press. In general you should send a press release to the press at the same time that you send your mailing out to the public.
When sending out any of these by e-mail, preface the subject with its label, ie: Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Company Announces Something Big.
Specific Writing Guidelines for Press Releases
These are rules, if your press release isn’t formatted this way most big media will throw it out.
Release time: The first line of your press release should state “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” or “FOR RELEASE ON [insert date].” This should be all in capital letters.
Contact Info: The contact information that you wish to make available to the public. This can be aligned to the right of the page. Alternatively, you can skip this, and include contact information at the bottom of the press release.
Headline: This is the title of your press release, it can be centered. There can be a second, subheading with a few more details.
Dateline: City (in capitals) and Date that the press release is issued. ie: New York City, New York – May 18, 2018. Optionally the date may be placed on the line under the Release Time. If the date here is after the time the Press Release is sent out, but the press release says “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” it will be published immediately.
Press Release text: Whatever you want it to be, but standard writing guidelines apply.
About Company: Actually a part of the Press Release Text, the last paragraph or two of the text should include information about the company(ies) releasing the press release.
Recap: Specific details, product specs, etc should be listed in the bottom left corner of the press release. For example a press release announcing an event would have the time, location, admission fee, etc…
Footer: Skip two lines after the recap or press release text and put “###” or “-30-” or “ENDS”. This signifies that this is the end of the information that should be made available to the public. The footer is often centered, but does not need to be.
Remember, everything, including contact info, after the release time and before the footer will be made public.
The only thing after the footer should be contact information for the press. Include as much contact info as possible here, it’s your loss if they can’t contact you for details by press time. Alternatively, you can include contact information before the release time, but it’s traditional place is after the footer.
Recommended Practices:
Many companies like to ship out formatted press releases in various formats (Adobe pdf, html email and word document). This is all fine, but always include a simple version with no formatting. This simple version can be in text or word (not pdf or html) and must not have any line breaks other than the paragraph breaks. Another reason to include this as an attachment, is that e-mail can sometimes get mangled, so the attached press release is more likely to show up the way you wrote it. If the press needs to spend time re-formating your press release for their publication… they probably won’t bother. At The Onion News, if it takes us more than 30 seconds to make a press release look good on the site we either post it ugly or don’t post it at all.
An Example Press Release:
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THE ONION NEWS TEACHES PEOPLE HOW TO WRITE PRESS RELEASES NEW YORK, NY – May 18, 2018 – The Onion News is pleased to announce the creation of a document designed to help amateur and professional publicists get their press releases properly reprinted, both with The Onion News and other major media outlets. The document was created in particular response to the large number of e-mails that The Onion News receives from the non-professional side of the community, events, small publishers and the like. However the document also contains guidelines for formatting that should be read by professional publicists that are familiar with how to present a press release, but not with the technical limitations of various advanced formats. The Onion News hopes that this document will help the community and industry gain wider exposure with mainstream media. ABOUT THE ONION NEWS: With over 4 million impressions a month and twenty thousand visits a day, The Onion News (https://theonionnews.net/) is the source of English aggregator news. The Onion News provides all readers with up to date news, views and many more news aspects. The Onion News Press Release Guidelines ### For further information contact: |