How to Write a Press Release

What is a Press Release? A factual announcement sent to the media to be used as a news item. Sent by businesses, organizations, individuals and government agencies

What you want to communicate The facts: – 5 W’s and an H Who? What? When? Where? Why? Oh, yeah. How?

Parts of a Press Release Headline(s) Lead The body –The facts. –The quotes. –The down and dirty. Each part should retell the story

1.Gather all the pertinent facts about the sports news. This includes the team or individuals involved, the sporting event, the date and why the story is newsworthy. 2.Create the header of the press release. Include the team logo centered in the header if this is available. Be sure to start with your contact information aligned on the left margin with each bit of information having its own line: name, phone, . Write "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" aligned on the left to draw the readers' attention to this as being time-sensitive material.

4. Write the title of the press release, centered with one line skipped between the contact information and the title. Use all capital letters in the title and give the gist of the information in this. Use a subtitle if you need to under the title, capitalizing only the first letter of each word. 5. Draft your body. There should be three main paragraphs, including the location and date (bolded), and stating the information that will grab an audience about the sports news. For example, you may want to state that the Local Tiny Tots have won the State Little League Championships and the town of Boca is having a parade in their honor. 1.In the second paragraph, include background information on the accomplishment. For example, you may want to state how the team got to this level and how far into the season it is. Include quote from key individuals (team captains, coaches or MVP). 2.The last paragraph should state the background of the team, including any previous successes, the coach's bio and team/player profiles.

6. Write a contact paragraph. This isn't part of the body of your press release and should be segmented by several spaces and a center marker, such as several pound signs or asterisks. Repeat the contact information, this time in sentence form. 7. Review your press release for grammatical and spelling errors to create the final copy, and then send it out to local newspapers, television stations and magazines by mail or fax. You can send it out by , but don't make this your primary method of distribution, because is easily overlooked.