Press release etiquette?

bubukaba — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:31:40 -0800

What is proper etiquette for writing and distributing press releases? General advice, book/website suggestions appreciated; more specific questions inside. I've been publicity chair of a film society in Chicago for about two months. We have a 500-seat cinema, we screen films every night of the week on 35mm whenever possible (often rare or archival prints), and we have some of the most interesting, eclectic programming in the city. So, in some senses we're very professional.

But the reality is that we're actually an all-volunteer organization staffed by unpaid undergraduates (I'm one, too) and occasional cinephiles from the City. The University is completely uninvolved in most of our work.

So, two months ago I found myself in charge of all of our publicity - with pretty much no experience. I think I've done a pretty good job so far, but I'm concerned that my lack of experience is leading me to make a lot of assumptions about what is and isn't okay to do when dealing with the press.

1: I've mostly been emailing our press releases (we send out one announcing our quarterly calendar and about one a month about special events). Is this a terrible idea?

2: Is it bad form to BCC it to everyone with a generic greeting and "this is the press release for ____. Thanks a lot, etc etc" kind of opening letter? Should I be emailing each reporter individually instead?

3: What should the subject line to an emailed press release read?

4: Should I still put -30- at the end of an emailed press release? (What about a paper one?)

5: Is sending an attached .pdf always bad?

6: Under what circumstances should I mail a paper copy?

7: Should I write to ask if people would like to be added to our press list, or if they want to remain on it? How do I build these sorts of relationships? (This is the kind of thing that seems particularly hard in a four-year institution).

8: How do I inform the press of corrections to my initial press releases?

9: Are there differences in how I should approach newspapers and how I should approach blogs? (I'm particularly worried about my dealings with the Slowdown section of Gapers Block - they seem to have completely ignored everything I've sent them, including questions about how to best submit our calendar of screenings to them).

10: Should I write to thank journalists who write things about us?

11: How long should a press release be?

Any suggestions of web or print resources on figuring this whole game out would be enormously appreciated.

From Hack to Flack?

mph — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 12:05:29 -0800

How easy/feasible is to make the jump from journalist to media relations/publicist? I've been working in tech journalism for about six years now. As "careers" go it was sort of coincidental and grew out of some interests I had that I was writing about for the hell of it anyhow. Even though I sort of started my academic life looking to be involved in journalism somehow (EiC of the college paper, brief stint as a smalltown reporter), I didn't expect I'd end up covering tech journalism stuff.

I'm getting a little restless now, and I've been wondering about what options there are that would leverage what I already know without keeping me in the exact same field. It so happens that I recently watched a company in the space I cover pick up a new PR person, and my first reaction was "Wow ... she's really lucky to get to work for them ... they deserve a decent media presence," which served to sort of edge me around my usual reaction to any flack, which is appropriately and professionally hostile in a very cordial sort of way.

When I was in college, everyone was moaning about how the journalism departments were staggering under an influx of people who came to learn the inverted pyramid style so they could make their press releases more palatable to the schmoes transcrib... reporting on them, so it's always seemed to me that these are two compatible fields on some levels.

Is that so? If you've moved between the two professions (preferably from hack to flack) what was it like? If I couldn't find work with a company I believed in, what are opportunities like in the non-profit sector?

I'll extra appreciate any answer that doesn't include the word "evil" or any of its many synonyms.

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Press release etiquette?

From Hack to Flack?