Your press release sucks, but there's hope

Using the media can be an effective tool in influencing policy. Kerra Bolton, former Capitol bureau chief for the Asheville Citizen Times and principal of Lightning Bolt Meda, contributed a series of posts on communications for non-profits.

Your press release was a masterpiece of the English language. It went through five drafts. Your ninth-grade English teacher would have wept upon reading it. You pressed the send button to release your creation to the world. The music swelled…and…and…crickets.

Your press release doesn’t suck. But the way you approach writing press releases and pitching stories may need a little tweaking. Gone are the days of sending a press release to some eager reporter salivating at the prospect of writing your story. Deadlines have gotten tighter. Reporters have gotten fewer. And the expectations placed on journalists have risen in the era of tweets, blogs, and 10-minute news cycles.

With a few simple tips, you can make sure your story gets heard in the chatter. You will learn how to: create and maintain a database of reporters, cultivate relationships with journalists, commit news, pitch stories, and write press releases that get results.

In this series, I’ll share my experiences as a journalist and a communications professional. I can tell you what works having received tons of press releases in a day and how I crafted press releases that got attention.

I’m also interested in your story. What worked for you? You can e-mail me at kerrabolton@gmail.com and share your success stories.