Watershed Coalition New Study Exposes Shortfalls Of Recent Legislation

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Hartford, Connecticut - Despite recently passed legislation, water waste is still being dumped into Clear Creek according to the Watershed Coalition’s new study, Does Watershed Legislation Work?: An Analysis of  H.R. 2000.

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The body of the news release should be concise, yet detailed enough to provide vital information related to the story. A reporter should be able to write their news release in its entirety using your release or even just a portion of the release. Each paragraph of your release must have the ability to stand on its own.

The reader should be able to eliminate paragraphs one by one, beginning at the bottom of the release, and still have enough to write a story when only the first few paragraphs remain. To give the release more credibility and realism, include quotes from the key spokespersons or parties involved. Quotes also be arranged hierarchically. Place the most important quote on the first page of the release. Incorporate stories of local people in your news release.

Reporters often ask for real-world examples to use as anecdotes. Choose your story carefully. Make sure it supports your major points. For example, if you’re writing a release about the Watershed Protection Program and you want to demonstrate the need for extensive outreach, choose a Water trail that would be changed as a result of outreach.

Always screen the representative from the water trail telling the story and verify the story itself by asking many detailed questions. Make sure the person is comfortable with media and is able to answer detailed questions about their story. Also, be sure to get permission to have their name and story released.

Solution

When you’re addressing a problem, try to end the release with a solution. It’s easy to find complaints, but solutions are hard to come by. Ask yourself, �What can we do about this?� and offer an answer in your release. If you’re proposing several solutions, accent the least obvious or the one that will have the most impact on the problem.

Concluding

Include a boilerplate, a brief description of your organization and its cause, as the final paragraph of the news release. Once you have completed the release, use three number signs (###) at the bottom of the page to signify its end.

Length

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If you’re having trouble fitting your release on two pages, and you’ve already eliminated any unnecessary text, try using a smaller font or adjusting margins and line spacing, but make sure the document remains easy to read.

Assessing The News Environment

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At the same time, it may be possible for you to take advantage of competing events. For instance, if a managed care horror story is receiving attention in the local media, you could draft a release about the need for patient protections and how protections could have prevented the problem.

Quick Tips

Keep it simple and conversational, limiting the use of technical terms.

Be brief and to the point.

Make every word count.

Use powerful verbs; avoid weak qualifiers (e.g. very, really, truly).

Have someone unfamiliar with the issue read your release for clarity. bullets and numbers are a great way to lay out facts more succinctly.

Sending It Out

Embargoes

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Indicate an embargo by typing Hold for Release or Embargoed in the header of the news release (adjacent to the contact information), followed by a date and time on the next line. The main purpose of an embargo is to control when the media releases your story. This is especially helpful if you are staging an event or news conference around a report that you’re releasing, because it increases the likelihood that press will attend since reporters like to be the first to break a news story. The date and time of the embargo should coincide with the date and time of your news conference.

Embargoes are not always necessary, especially if you are not holding an event. If you don’t need an embargo, type For Immediate Release followed by a date (no time is needed) where you would otherwise place the embargo language.

Sometimes reporters, especially print, will ask if they can receive your information early in order to prepare their stories in advance with the agreement they will not run the story until the embargo is lifted. If it is a reporter you can trust, allow that reporter early access to your information. Giving a reporter more time to examine the information often results in better reporting. However, be aware that if a reporter releases the story before the official embargo date, it may threaten your credibility in addition to decreasing the likelihood that other reporters, who may feel that the newsworthiness of your story has diminished due to its early release, will want to cover that story. So emphasize the embargo.

Who should receive it?

Send your news release to those media contacts who work on your general issue. Also, consider creating an additional media list tailored to the specific issue.

In addition to creating press lists, there are many other considerations to sending your release, such as deciding whether to focus on national, state or local media and choosing among print, media, and radio outlets.

How should you send it?

Whether you send your release by fax, mail, e-mail or personal delivery will vary. If possible, it’s best to include information in your press list about the individual reporter/editor’s preference for receiving news releases. While some are happy to receive faxes or mail others won’t even give you their fax numbers and will insist that you send news releases via e-mail.

Adhering to each individuals preferences is not always possible and is often time and resource consuming. If you have a report or a lot of materials to include, mail is probably the best way to send out the news release. However, if you are only sending a news release, fax is usually the best method. E-mail works nicely, because it saves paper and time, but not everyone has an e-mail account.