External News Release 1

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1 Public Affairs Qualification Course External releases are part of your commander's communication program. They are used to either inform people of events that will affect them, or let people know what you are doing to address other issues. The messages conveyed must marry up with the overall communication goals you have established for the command. While you will write these releases in AP style, they are still part of your commander's communication program. Photo courtesy of akamai.net The Defense Information School, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland 1

2 Public Affairs Qualification Course Planning a News Release A news release is designed to draw attention to your organization with a specific result in mind. It is a tool to help you achieve organizational communication objectives. When you start planning your release, ask yourself these questions: What is the element of news that applies? What goal does the command want to achieve? Does the command want to inform an audience? Does the command want to change attitudes or increase attendance? What is the subject of the message? What is the specific focus of this release, and is it intended for local citizens, a national audience or international audience? A news release should be written for a specific audience. Ask yourself, what is in it for the particular audience? What format best suits that audience, and what are the potential benefits and rewards? You may also want to ask, what themes should this release highlight? (Wilcox, p. 127) There are three things you can do to get your release read. First, have some news to report. Know your intended audience and attempt to reach them through the right medium. Pay attention to the W's. Ask yourself which is most important: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Answering each of those will help determine if you have real news and also the best way to position it. Leave the fluff at home and keep to the facts. A news release is not an advertisement, nor is it a marketing piece. Okay, let s talk about the types of external releases that can be written and their uses. Photo courtesy of 2 The Center of Excellence for Visual Information and Public Affairs

3 Public Affairs Qualification Course Types of External News Releases Different events and information may dictate how and why you send out information, but they generally fall into five categories. Announcements External news release announcements can be used for personnel appointments, promotions, changes, new products or services, reports of acquisitions, events, awards, contests, policy changes, employment, opportunities, anniversaries, constructions, openings and closings of facilities, contracts received and legal actions. Make sure the news is worth releasing. Don't release "proposed awards." Spot Announcements Spot announcements can be used for outside actions or influences to an organization that disrupt services such as man-made events or natural disasters. These announcements are usually last minute or temporary changes that affect your organization. Military examples are gate closings, road closures, exercises, and weather-related announcements. or a response to allegations against your organization. This will require close coordination and approval from higher headquarters. Bad News Releases Bad news releases are usually about accidents or incidents involving your organization. Check your service's regulations about specifics, but remember DOD policy: Maximum disclosure with minimum delay. Some releases will simply be based on your responses to media queries. Local News Releases Local news releases offer a local angle to readers, reporters and editors to care about the information. Most media outlets serve local audiences, localizing information to get releases published. Now that we have talked about the types of external releases, let s look at constructing the release. Reaction Releases These types of releases are reserved for when something was done or said that may harm or has bearing on your organization. Military examples would be support or compliance with military policy Photo courtesy of /2.bp.blogspot.com The Defense Information School, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland 3

4 Public Affairs Qualification Course External Leads Leads for external news releases have the same structural rules as your internal leads. They are one paragraph, one sentence and have thirty words or fewer. They also include a dateline, local angle and a military tie. We will start out with datelines, since they come first on all external releases. Photo courtesy of 4 The Center of Excellence for Visual Information and Public Affairs

5 Public Affairs Qualification Course Datelines You will put a dateline on all your external releases. Datelines tell the reader where the action in the story took place or where the story was written. Datelines were very important when news took days to cross the country or the Atlantic. The date the story was written was more in doubt. Now, that date can be determined by reading the time reference in the lead. Most datelines don't have dates anymore. Dates are making a comeback on web-based news services. Twenty-four-hour news cycles increase the demand for date inclusion, and many news services are even adding times. Military datelines tell where the story was written and released, not necessarily where the event occurred. That is why we can use "here" as a "where" element in the lead. Action frequently takes place in some other place. Be careful using "here" in those cases. If there is more than one place referred to in the story, pay even closer attention to the use of "here." You will need to be precise about where each action occurred. Format The dateline begins with the city, or base, with every letter capitalized. The state, if necessary, is abbreviated, according to AP style. You must refer to the AP Stylebook entry for datelines. Some cities stand alone and others require the state. The next element is a dash with a space on either side, followed by the beginning of the actual lead. Here are some examples: 1. FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. -- Testing of 2. BOSTON (AP) -- President George W. Bush 3. WASHINGTON (AFIS) -- Today's military 4. JOINT BASE PARKER-TRUSCOTT, Ga. -- Vice President Joe Biden Notice the (AP) and the (AFIS) in the datelines. We do this because the source of the story is not from a local source but a national source or national news feed. Another time we use datelines is with stories from outside sources that we choose to run in our internal publications. Photo courtesy of The Defense Information School, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland 5

6 Public Affairs Qualification Course Local Angle This is the "What's in it for me" information for local audiences and it satisfies the "proximity" element of news. If you're an editor in Peoria, Illinois, do you care about this story? MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho -- A captain with the 366th Maintenance Squadron here won the Mr. Idaho body-building competition Friday and will move on to the East Regional meet May 10. There's no reason for anyone in Peoria to care. It doesn't satisfy the "What's in it for me?" question. But what if it said: MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho -- A 1992 graduate of Peoria High School, now with the 366th Maintenance Squadron here, won the Mr. Idaho body-building competition Friday and will move on to the East Regional meet May 10. Isn't this more appealing to the editor, and his readers? Now there is a reason to be interested. That's the local angle. Without the local angle there is no "proximity." Format with the Local Angle The local angle is your lead emphasis. It will be the first few words of the lead and immediately following the dateline. If the local angle doesn't apply, then you will write an appropriate what or who lead. For example, an external release for a concert on your base will probably not be written any differently than the internal release, other than the inclusion of a dateline. JOINT BASE PARKER-TRUSCOTT, Ga. -- Darius Rucker is the headliner for the base's annual troop appreciation concert Oct. 23 at the base's parade field. Keep in mind this external release will likely only be sent to media in the immediate area. It wouldn't be sent to a newspaper in Boise, Idaho, for example. You may write multiple versions of releases with differing local angles. Photo courtesy of /uc.utep.edu 6 The Center of Excellence for Visual Information and Public Affairs

7 Public Affairs Qualification Course Format for the Military Tie The military tie tells editors why you are sending the release. It gets your command in the lead. This is the PR side of PA. If you don t include it, why did you bother to send it out? Format for the Military Tie The military tie follows the local angle and is separated by commas. Use impersonal who identification and the other W s follow: What, When and Where. It must include them to avoid a weak news lead, and the body of the story should have local information up front. FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, MD. An Augusta native, now a journalism instructor at the Defense Information School... In announcement stories, the military tie isn t always blatantly stated, but is built in throughout. For example: FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. A Bowie construction company was awarded a $4.8 million contract here Nov. 5 to build a child care center here. The same applies to event stories, the military tie isn t always blatantly stated but is built in throughout: MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho -- A free air show is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday on the base flight line. COAST GUARD TRAINING CENTER CAPE MAY, N.J. A public ship modelers competition, sponsored by the Cape May branch of the Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers Association, is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on the parade field here. Now that you know what constitutes an external lead, we have to talk about the external date week. Photo courtesy of The Defense Information School, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland 7

8 Public Affairs Qualification Course External Dateweek Structure is exactly the same as the internal dateweek. However, it's centered around the release date. At the top of external releases is one piece of text: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. EMBARGO UNTIL, followed by a date. This is used to get information out to the media ahead of time. The media is under no legal obligation to abide by the embargo. The Department of Defense does not use embargoes for news release. So, now you know how to write an external lead. Now let s look at the other components of an external release. Photo courtesy of seo-hacker.com 8 The Center of Excellence for Visual Information and Public Affairs

9 Public Affairs Qualification Course Release Components The general format is the same as what you've done so far, start halfway down the first page, etc. There are a few elements that differ from your internal news story. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE This should be centered on the top of the first page. Name of organization. Point of contact information: Name, section, phone number/ . Headline. Release date. The actual date it was released, not the date you started writing it. Release time. Release number. Command name. End with 30 or xxx. This lets the editor know they have the entire release (Howard, pp ). Now that you know what the release components are and how to format your release, let's talk about fact sheets. Photo courtesy of blog.mitchcommgroup.com The Defense Information School, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland 9

10 Public Affairs Qualification Course Fact Sheets Fact sheets often accompany press releases and include a list of facts in outline or bullet format that a reporter can use as a quick reference when writing a story. They can cover any topic. Simple ones covering the W's and H can be helpful to reporters. They may form the basis of a whole story for a reporter. The reporter may use just one or two of the facts provided to supplement the information in the new release (Wilcox, pp ). There are three basic fact sheets. The first is an upcoming event, which will include name of the event, sponsors, location, date and time, purpose of the event, expected attendance, prominent people attending, and any unusual aspects of the event that make it noteworthy. The second is organizational. The fact sheet will include the organization name, mission or operation overview, total number of employees, names and short biographies of leadership, area of operations and other pertinent information. Sometimes these are referred to as backgrounders. The third fact sheet is a summary fact sheet and is the most commonly used fact sheet. It will include basic facts on equipment, programs, services, units, which is also called facts on file. You want to insure you don t violate SAPP when issuing these facts on file. It will also include unit or equipment capabilities, historical background and financial statistics on programs or services. Photo courtesy of 10 The Center of Excellence for Visual Information and Public Affairs

11 Public Affairs Qualification Course Conclusion It does you no good to send out hundreds of external releases and have none of them run. If you follow the guidelines, you have a fighting chance of having an editor actually read your copy and give you some of the space in their publication. The Defense Information School, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland 11

12 Public Affairs Qualification Course References and Additional Resources Cappon, Renee J. (2000). The Associated Press Guide to Good News Writing: The Resource for Professional Journalists (3rd ed.) Canada: Thomson-Arco Associated Press. (2011). AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (46th ed.). New York: The Associated Press. Public Affairs Leadership Department Journalism Writing Guide (2012) Howard, Carole M.; Mathews, Wilma K. (2006) On Deadline: Managing Media Relations. Waveland Press, Inc. Anderson, Douglas A. and Itule, Bruce D. (2003). News Writing and Reporting for Today s Media. (6th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill, Wilcox, Dennis L. (2005). Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education 12 The Center of Excellence for Visual Information and Public Affairs