The Perfect Press Release Versus Getting The News Out On Time

Issuing a press release is about more than communicating your news in a clearly written fashion. It's also about timing.

This is particularly important in product publicity when you are issuing a release in the pursuit of editorial coverage. Most product or service announcements are not big news. Unless you're Microsoft, your biggest hurdle will be convincing the media that your news is worth editorial space.

It's important for your press release to be clear. All the facts should be correct. The release should be straight-forward and not sound like an ad.

Yet one of the most important parts of issuing a press release is frequently overlooked. That's timing.

So write the release and move it through your internal review process quickly. Don't let it get stuck in an internal bottleneck.

No matter how well-written it is, it's only useful if you actually send it out to the media. If it's held inside so long that your news gets stale, it won't matter if your prose is Pulitzer Prize winning when you finally get around to releasing it. You won't get coverage and no one will see it.

So resist the temptation to polish and polish that release. If the facts are correct and the writing is clear, just get it out.