USW, BA [Hons] Performing Arts: Graduation Showcase 2014 (Level 6)

What is a press release?

A press release is simply a statement prepared for distribution to the news media announcing something claimed as having news value with the intent of gaining media coverage.

What does a press release contain?

Headline

The headline is the first single line of text in the press release and tells interested parties i.e journalist and/or your intended demographic, what the press release is about. It can be a very effective tool to grab the attention of the journalists, so writing it from a journalists perspective is very important. Think what headlines catch your eye in the newspaper.
The headline should be descriptive but not too long. The headline should be formatted in title case, that is, each word in the sentence should have first letter capitalized, and all other letters in lowercase. Acronyms can be in uppercase.

Summary

The summary lets you build up your chance to sell your press release to the journalist. It is generally a requirement of online press release services. Identify a unique feature about your performance piece and then write how it will impact on the audience or relates to a news worthy topic.

The summary should be a single paragraph with about three to five lines. All sentences in the summary should be in sentence case, that is, only first letter of a sentence should be a capital, and all others should be lowercase. Again, acronyms can be all capital letters.

Body

Dateline
The dateline contains the release date of the press release. It is usual to include the originating city of the press release.

Introduction
The introduction is where the press release body starts. It is the first paragraph in a press release, that generally gives basic answers to the questions of who, what, when, where and why. Commonly called the 5 W's

Details
The details come after the introduction. It gives further explanation, statistics, background, or other details relevant to the news and also serves to back up whatever claims were made in the introductory paragraph.

The body should be at least 500 words. The body should have a minimum of two paragraphs. All paragraphs should be ideally between 5 to 8 lines each. Each line should be double spaced for ease of reading.

About

The about section is also called the "boilerplate" as it is used over and over again. It is generally a short section providing background information on the press release issuing company or organisation.

Media Contact Information

This section contains the contact information like name, phone number, email address, mailing address, etc for the media relations contact person. For good credibility, the email address should be the same as the organisation the press release is about. For example, if the press release is about an organisation with a website called abcd.com, then the email address should be email@abcd.com.

General Tips

A press release should be written in the third person. Instead of using we, us and ours, you should use they, them and theirs.
It is very useful to look at other people's press releases. Feel free to take a look at the most viewed press releases, as it usually gives a lot of insight into how to write a press release

Task

Using the above format write a press release for your Graduation Showcase performance

Save the press release as a .pdf or .doc or .rtf document
Upload the press release through the mLE (Graduate Showcase course page)
Only one press release per group should be uploaded - it should be titled with the name of your group ie ABCTheatre.doc

References