Write better release openers

Are you still using the fact pack — cramming who, what, when, where, why and how into the first paragraph of your news release? Are you still married to the dated “XYZ Company today announced …” approach?

Lead on — **Follow the leader** Make sure your message gets heard with colorful, compelling PR leads. *Image by June Yarham*

These conventional formulas to release leads are formulaic, old-fashioned and — let’s face it — dull. Both approaches slow the story down, appear unsophisticated and are too stereotypical to stand out from the competition.

Instead, choose from these three more effective approaches. …

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Anatomy Of a PR Piece

Tap current best practices, from lead to boilerplate

Prose is architecture, Hemingway famously said. It’s not interior design.

Body of evidence image — **Body of evidence** Get proven-in-the-lab techniques for improving your PR piece, from headline to -30-. *Image by Celeste RC*

Are you building a compelling foundation for your media relations pieces? Or are you still using structural techniques you learned when you were 19?

At Not Your Father’s News Release — a two-day PR-writing Master Class on July 27-28 in Portland, Oregon — you’ll learn how to organize PR pieces to grab reader attention, keep it for the long haul and leave a lasting impression.

Specifically, you’ll learn how to:

Choose a structure that increases readership, understanding and satisfaction with your message. (Hint: The structure you’re using now is probably doing the opposite.)
Avoid PR 101 leads. Still using the fact pack? Still writing announcement leads? It’s time to move on to a more effective approach.
Transform lame-ass quotes into killer sound bites.
Avoid the worst PR clichés. PR Newswire sees 1,284 of these in a single month. How can you make your PR messages stand out?
Beat the boilerplate blues. Here’s one way to stay off The Bad Pitch Blog.

This is the only PR-writing Master Class we’ve scheduled for this year. Don’t miss out on your chance to learn to write PR pieces that reach readers in 2016.