This article is written by Laura Mousseau, Communications Manager, City of Guelph.

These days, a press release isn’t just for the press. With media outlets facing cuts, including the loss of community papers, many people get information right from their local government’s website. While our main audience for a press release is still journalists, they aren’t the only audience anymore, and changes in our writing approach can help everyone.

That said, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all release format that works in all situations. More controversial announcements will require a different approach than straight-up good news stories. But there are some basics that will help make any press release useful to both journalists and other people getting updates directly from government sources.

Uncover and understand impacts

Before starting your press release, and after gathering all the facts, you’ll need to make sure you uncover and understand the impacts of the decision or change you’re writing about on the people you serve. Ideally, this work is done ahead of a press release to help inform decisions, but this may be your first involvement in the project. News can also be sudden or unexpected so you may need to do this work on the fly.

I’ve struggled most with writing press releases when it’s not clear why people should care — why what we’re sharing will matter to them. The most common mistake I see in press releases is an internal focus, simply stating what we’re doing or focusing what the work means to us, rather than the impact of what we’re doing on the people we serve. In my experience, when that impact is unclear the media have skipped covering it, or worse, got it wrong.

The worst case for communicators is that jargon and complex writing will cause a journalist to get your story wrong and you’ll be scrambling for corrections

For me, uncovering and understanding impacts might include doing an environmental scan, especially where the subject is controversial. What’s been said before, what’s being said now and who’s saying it?

Ensuring you understand the impacts of the news you’re announcing helps you write a press release that adds helpful or critical context and addresses impacts. If the information doesn’t all fit in the press release, it’s likely to be useful for answering follow-up questions from journalists and the public.

More clarity and transparency

Given the pace of news and the reduction in resources, journalists may have less time to tease out complex information and decipher industry jargon. Help journalists tell your story and get the facts right by providing clear, factual information.

My communications career began with a science organisation and, in the early days, my press releases often used jargon or complex concepts that led to people not understanding, and therefore not caring, about what we were communicating. The worst-case for communicators is that jargon and complex writing will cause a journalist to get your story wrong and you’ll be scrambling for corrections.

Help people understand and care about what you’re telling them by providing information in a language everyone can easily understand. If the information is important enough to warrant a press release, don’t make people work for it. It doesn’t mean you avoid tough concepts; just break them down and explain them. Clear writing benefits both journalists and other people who read your press releases, especially those whose first language isn’t the one you’re writing in. Use free online apps like the Up-goer Five Text Editor or Hemingway Editor to test your writing’s readability.

Use analogies and comparisons

Another common mistake with press releases is that we write them in the abstract. Even when we clearly state the impact, we often write about policies and budgets and construction projects without making the news relatable for the people affected.

Providing analogies for both everyday and complex subjects can help journalists create solid stories that their readers will relate to, or at the very least, understand the importance of.

We might state the impact of a construction project as a road being closed, and we can help people relate to the need for this by providing an analogy. So instead of talking about asset maintenance in the abstract, talk about maintenance and replacement of underground water and sewer pipes in relation to home plumbing: taking care of your home’s pipes and replacing them before they break prevents more costly problems.

If you’re quoting measurements, provide a comparison to put it into context like the equivalent number of Olympic-sized swimming pools for water volumes or football fields for land area. The Measure of Things website lets you plug in a measurement to get real-life comparisons for weight, height, volume and area. Did your community clean up 3,300 kilograms of garbage, or a hippo’s-worth?

Write for the people you serve, not your organisation

Press releases aren’t for us, they’re for people outside of our organisation. As public servants we’re proud of our work and, naturally, we want to share the details that are important to us, but we really must consider whether this information is important to our audience.

To be effective, press releases first need to address what the announcement means for the people you serve. We can’t just share what we’ve decided and what it means for our organisations; we need to explain the impact of government decisions on our communities.

Running regular media relations training sessions for your organisation’s project and program leads helps you prepare staff to be excellent spokespeople for your organisation

When we approve new parks, we’re creating more places for people to play or explore; when we announce road construction projects, we’re making it easier for people to get around; and when we approve budgets, we’re allocating taxpayer dollars to services that support our communities’ needs.

If people need to change something they’re doing, or if there’s a call to action, that should be the headline — not our decision. The needed behaviour change is the news; the decision and how we came to it is the background information.

And, in the digital world, you can still share the stuff you want people to know through links from your press release to your website. Those who want more info will check it out, and at the very least, your press release will give people what they need to know.

Let your subject matter experts talk to journalists

The people leading and doing the work being shared in a press release are the best people to answer journalists’ questions, provided they have training and support from public relations and communication professionals. Having a go-between can slow a media inquiry down, affecting both a journalist’s ability to write to deadlines and, if they can’t get all their questions answered in time, the story that they’re able to tell.

Running regular media relations training sessions for your organisation’s project and program leads helps you prepare staff to be excellent spokespeople for your organisation. Training helps you identify who is a natural spokesperson, and who needs more training and support to get comfortable in this role. Not everyone will excel at this, and you can work with the skills and abilities of your staff to find the right spokesperson for each announcement.

That doesn’t mean you never use an intermediary as the media contact. There will be situations where having someone process and arrange media interviews will be crucial. Otherwise, let your staff own, share and celebrate the hard work they do. — Laura Mousseau

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