MEDIA RELEASE WRITING

Interacting with the media often involves the use of media releases. They're also called press releases or news releases. Whatever they're called, they can be damned difficult to write properly. As principal of Kelly Communications, I've worked at all five free-to-air TV networks in this country and I've been chief of staff at four of them and that's the position that assesses the media releases on a daily basis. I can tell you that I've thrown out more media releases than I've acted upon. Why?

Well, most of them were far too long; many of them had no news angle; quite a few were targeted to the wrong media; and a large number of them had no contact details to allow me to follow through on them.

There are more bad media releases out there than good ones and, guess what? Like media interviews, the art of writing a good media release doesn't change over time. The basics for handling a media interview to your advantage and writing a good media release are both constant. Undergo this course and you'll be writing GOOD media releases, not bad ones.

The course is a half day one for up to 10 people with two of us training. We show you a range of good and bad media releases and then get you to write your own media releases on several different topics. We then constructively critique those releases as well as show you what could have happened with the badly composed ones. We also show you a range of modern media releases that have been sent to media outlets and critique them for the participants.

Fees

Our fees, in 2008, for this module are $2,000 which means your people can learn how to write a good media release for only $200 each. If you have fewer than 10 people needing to attend, please contact us for a specific quote to handle your training needs.