Top tips from a PR Newswire pro on how to get great news coverage

Editors are always looking for great content from external sources, particularly in these times of reduced staffing for newspapers, magazines, TV and online media. If you position your PR message to provide a solution, educate or drive action – or even better, all three – your client is more likely to get coverage.  

Kyle Frohnapple, account director for PR Newswire, discussed the ups and downs of public relations with members of the KC IABC Masters group at a dinner meeting.

Ask yourself five questions before you prepare your news release, Frohnapple recommends:

• Who is your audience?
• What’s the best format for your content?
• What value do you provide?
• What keywords will boost visibility?
• What kind of multimedia can you add?

The very best content is sharable, since social media operates on a 24/7 news cycle, he added. So always add copy for a tweet and a Facebook post to your PR release, along with multimedia – always a photo or graphic, and possibly a short video.

Here are more tips from Frohnapple on how to produce great PR content for your clients:

• Lead with the story, not the brand. Editors need original content that is useful and interesting to the target audience.
• Keep the headline brief and tweetable. The first 65 characters should be able to stand alone, as that’s the limit for Google search.
• Use a headline question and add a subhead or two. Answer the question in the body of the PR.
• Include 1-3 hyperlinks in the PR release, but never link twice to the same URL.  
• Consider what value your PR provides to your targeted audience.
• Be thrifty with word count, keeping it to 400-600 words.
• Break up copy with lists, section headers and images.
• Be sensitive to major breaking news when you’re sending out your PR release.
• Include a clean call to action in the first paragraph and in the full URL.
• Include one or two hashtags, but no more.
• Place the URL for your PR in the second paragraph, not at the end of the release.
• Do not use attachments with your release. Put the entire message in the body of the email.
• More journalists prefer to get news tips by email, rather than from social media.
• A follow-up phone call, placed at an appropriate time, never hurts.