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Put a quota on quotes

Stop quoting every VP

You’ve read the kvetching about overdoing corporate quotes:

when to paraphrase vs quote
Don’t quote every VP To avoid overquoting, put a quota on quotes, paraphrase, curate quotes — even leave them out altogether. Image by filadendron
“Sprinkling quotes is one thing. Hosing them on is another.”
— John B. Campbell, former senior editor of Business Week
“I think of quotes as spices. Spices in themselves have no nutritional value. They make nutritious things taste better but, like spices, quotes should be used sparingly.”
— Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at The Washington Post
“Too many good ideas are buried in Dilbert-esque releases because … every corporate executive gets quoted.”
— Alison Harris, publisher, Call Center News
  • You know that quotes slow web visitors down.[1]
  • You’ve read that journalists ranked quotes last — dead last, after even the dateline and the boilerplate — on the list of important elements in a press release, in a recent study by Greentarget.
  • You know in your heart that your executive quotes are horrible.

So why do we keep running so many quotes?

Learn to transform lame-ass quotes into snappy sound bites. >>>

To avoid overquoting:

1. Put a quota on quotes.

  • Limit quotes to 12% of total word count. That’s the amount of space The New York Times devotes, on average, to quotes. How do we know? We analyzed the quotes in all of the stories, except sports coverage, in a single edition of the paper.
  • Follow the one-in-three rule. That is, use no more than one quote every three paragraphs. Better: Use even fewer.
  • Don’t be afraid to use no quotes. Some 18% of The New York Times stories we reviewed had no quotes.

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[1] Jacqui Banaszynski, “Newswriting for the Web: Words That Work Online on Deadline,” A Poynter NewsU Webinar, Nov. 18, 2009

3 more ways to avoid overquoting. >>>

How can you write PR quotes that get quoted?

Reporters rank quotes the least important element in a news release — after the boilerplate and the dateline.

NOT Your Father’s PR Writing — media relations-writing workshop on Aug. 15Learn to turn lame-ass quotes into scintillating sound bites that reporters will actually use at NOT Your Father’s PR Writing — our media relations-writing workshop starting Aug. 15.

There, you’ll steal techniques from Silver Anvil winners for making your sound bites sound better … learn how to transform your quotations from bleh to brilliant … and steal tricks from The New York Times to avoid overquoting.

Plus: Find out how to avoid the worst PR quote clichés (PR Newswire sees 1,284 of these in a single month.)

Save up to $100 with our group discounts.

Register for NOT Your Father’s PR Writing — media relations-writing workshop on Aug. 15