SOR 042: Anatomy of a Press Release
walkthrough of how to put together a press release for your show
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StitcherA good press release is going to make life as easy as possible for the journalists you are inviting to cover your production. There are some standard practices for the type of information that needs to be included as well as how the release should be formatted.
I am not a journalist. I am not an editor. My degree was not in journalism. I don’t want to imply that I am giving you the best or only way to put together your press releases. I’m just sharing what works based on my personal experiences promoting theatre.
In this episode:
- before you start writing – make sure you have thought about why your production is newsworthy
- what goes into your headline – this isn’t the headline that you want to show up in your local paper, it’s a specific headline to catch the attention of a journalist digging through a pile of releases
- paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown – an explanation of what I included in each paragraph and why
- key formatting elements – if you want to be taken seriously among other press releases, make sure the top and bottom of the page have the information a journalist is going to be expecting
- be explicit about the invitation – don’t make them guess what you want them to do, spell out what you’re offering them and what you want in exchange
- keep to one page – if you can’t convince them to cover your show in one page, you can’t convince them
Items mentioned:
- Actual press release – this is a copy of the press release I walk through in this episode
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