Download these Top Tips as a PDF guide

Editors and journalists receive thousands of press releases each day, the trick is to make yours stand out and provide all an editor needs to increase your chances of it being picked up.

The Five W’s

This is the crux of all news; your story must address the following - Who? What? When? Where? Why?  Any good news story provides answers to each of these questions. You must drill these into your brain and they must become second nature.

A good quote

This is an ideal place to get your key messages in so they will be printed, but make sure you make them sound like that person is saying them. Do not just cut and paste.

Human interest

Your success stories are the reason you exist and evoke empathy, sadness, joy – these are the journalists’ human interest stories, the ones that bring the written word alive. You are at an advantage in that the people you help often have wonderful stories to tell – get them to tell it for you.

Images and video content

Photos increase the chance of your story being picked up and increasingly video is used for newspapers online.