COM Taejin Jung, Ph.D. News Release & Feature Story

New Release & Feature News release - Left brain skills - Informative - Logical, sequential, analytical - Timely disclosure of basic information about the situation and events - Hard news (e.g., mergers, acquisitions, contracts, layoffs) News Features - Right brain skills - Informative & Entertaining - Intuition, image making - Additional information and creates understanding in a more imaginative way - Soft news (e.g., entertainment, food, business, real estate, automotive, technology)

News Release Style Traditional Inverted Pyramid style - the most important and interesting information conveyed first, followed by information that is increasing less important The most important information Secondary information like attribution or background Elaborates or amplifies items mentioned in the first part Supplemental information

News Release Style The language in a news release should be directed toward news directors, and journalists, not toward the general public. Sentences and paragraph should be kept short and concise. Headline - Should be concise, informative, yet eye-catching and intriguing Subhead - Should incorporate supplemental information not highlighted in the headline Lead - Should contain 5W1H of the story in one or two sentences. - Most news release leads are found in the first paragraph. Body of the Release - Should contain facts that are clearly and concisely stated. - Avoids the use of overly descriptive language, superlatives, jargon, and inappropriate quotes. - Reflect the practitioners and sponsoring organization. - Misspelling and grammatical errors lead to credibility problems. Quotes - Provide a personal perspective to the story and amplify certain elements - Can be from experts, firsthand accounts, and reivews.

Types of News Releases Announcements - Personal information; new products or services; sales, earning, mergers, events, employment opportunities… - Prominence is a news value Spot announcements - When disrupt outside action influences an organization - e.g., storm, flood, strike…. Reaction releases - When something is done or said that may harm an organization Bad news - Confront the issue Local news - Localization, localization, and localization - Use the name of local people/ Use the information of local significance - Localizing information

News Feature: Planning Think of audience - Determine if the information would be interested to and useful for a particular audience Consider organizational objectives - You must be sure that the feature helps achieve organizational objectives. Make angle of news feature - Conceptualize how something lends itself to feature treatment

Types of Features Case study - Frequently used in product publicity - “A satisfied customer” is the key to writing a case history Application story - A lot like the case study - Tells how to use a new product or how to use a familiar product in a new way - Food publicity (e.g., recipes, home maintenance tips) - Ex) The HP DeskJet 340 on Mount Everest Research study - Survey and polls, as well as scientific studies, can provide opportunities for features - Particularly true if the research study is about some aspect of lifestyles or a common situation in the workplace - Ex) Health Advice for Personal Problem

Types of Features Backgrounder - Focuses on a problem and how it was solved - Where a product comes from or how it is made - To give consumers background information so they can make intelligent purchasing decisions Personality Profile - The lives and times of entertainment celebrities are the staple of many magazines - Movers and shakers in the corporate world Historical Piece - Anniversaries, major changes, centennials, and many other events lend themselves to historical features

Parts of a Feature Feature stories in the newspaper are 500~750 words long Headline - Informational news-type headline - Headline that uses a play on words, alliteration, or a rhyme to raise the curiosity of the editor or the consumer The Lead - The purpose of the lead in a news feature story is to attract attention and get the reader interested enough to read the entire article Body of the Feature - Quote from people - Concrete examples and illustrations - Descriptive words that paint mental pictures - Information presented in an entertaining way