Reading Summary Chapter 14 and Chapter 15

Chapter 14: Preparing Materials for Mass Media 

News Release 

• most common tactic in public relations 
• Planning worksheet should answer these questions:
• What is the key message?
• Who is the primary audience?
• What does the target audience gain from product or service?
• What objective does the release serve?
• Is a news release the best format? 
• Basic Formatting of a new release
• Single spaced, 200 words or less, inverted pyramid approach, top line should give name of organization, second line should give date, third line should be the headline, provide a dateline, end paragraph should give basic information about company, and lastly, there should be the contact information of the public relations person on the release

Multimedia News Release

• Smart Media Release (SMR) or social media news release, idea that allows you to embed a news release with higher resolution photos and graphics, video, and audio components 
• SEO- search engine optimization, the process of carefully selecting key words for the news release that make the content easily retrievable 
• Publicity photos attached with these SMR’s should be great quality, have an interesting subject matter, uncluttered composition, some sort of action, use scale, interesting cameral angle, good lighting and color
• Media kit, press kit: prepared for major events, gives editors and reporters a variety of information and resources that will make it easier for reporters to write about topic 
• usually includes main news release, new feature, fact sheets, background information, photos and drawing with captions, biographical material on senior executive, and several short brochures 
• digital media kit are more often used because of the cost effectiveness, and expand potential audience 
• Mat Feature Release (mat)- a feature angle is used rather than a lead, distributed through formats like Word, jpeg, or pdf 
• Fact Sheet
• Summary sheet about the characteristics of a new product that serves as reference for journalists 
• Corporate profile is one page summary in bulleted format that gives the basic facts about an organization or company 

The Pitch

• The objective is to contact journalists and bloggers on a one to one basis and convince them that you have a newsworthy story or idea 
• Use succinct subject line 
• Keep the message short, usually one screen length
• Don’t mass email all editors, break it up into smaller groups
• Establish a relationship with journalists, often helps not getting your email deleted right away 
• Email isn’t the only way, ProfNet (subscription), or Reporter connection (free) and Help a reporter out (HARO, free) 

• Distributing media materials can happen in five major methods: first class mail, fax, email, electronic wire services and online newsrooms 
• Most common are electronic news sources, where organizations use Business Wire or PR Newswire to distribute news releases or online newsrooms which is apart of their website, journalists can access everything like company profiles and news releases 

Chapter 15: Radio and Television 

Radio

• Audio news release (ANR): three differences, written for the ear, more concise and to the point, and the writing style is more conversational 
• most effective approach is to provide a radio station with a recording of someone speaking, another way includes having the radio announcer speak the script which also includes a soundbite of a customer 
• Radio PSA (Public service announcement): an unpaid announcement that promotes the programs that serve public interest, usually kept shorter, but can go from about 10 seconds to 60 seconds 
• Radio Media Tours (RMT): spokesperson does a series of one on one interviews with radios all across the country, relatively low cost 

Television

• Video news release (VNR): large organizations tend to turn to these when they want a more recognition for their product or service 
• typical 90 second VNR costs a minimum of 20,000 dollars to 50,000 dollars for production and distribution 
• on average takes four to six weeks to script, produce, and distribute 
• b-roll: two to three minutes of film with no recording over it, this allows producers to pick and edit so they can make their own story out of it 
• Guest appearances must have three requirements:
• Preparation: make sure to have a key message
• Concise speech: responses to questions should be 30 seconds or less 
• Relaxation: Tell client to forget about audience, view it as just a person to person conversation