Not all you **** is gold.

The vexatious question of press releases has been rearing its head this week and the team at bak has been grappling with a client’s desire to do a press release on an almost daily basis.

If you are thinking of sending out a press release for a client it’s worth asking them to consider the golden rule that all you **** isn’t necessarily gold. What’s important and essential for the client might not cut the mustard for a national news outlet, or even a local one. Newspapers, whether print or online, broadcast media and other platforms are inundated by press releases clogging up their inboxes. Larger public and private organisations may have entire units devoted to churning out press releases for their bosses on a daily basis without ever questioning the needs of the platforms they’re targeting.

It’s vital to aim for quality rather than quantity. We would always encourage our clients to work smarter, rather than harder and strategically consider if their ‘news’ meets the threshold for publication.

Here are some bullet points I’ve nicked from an article in The Guardian to bear in mind when judging a story for it’s ‘press releasibility’ (pardon the neologism!)

1. Is there anything "new" in my story?

2. Is there anything unusual or unexpected about it?

3. Would this be of interest to anyone outside my business?

4. Will anyone actually care?

If it isn’t newsworthy then hold off. If you keep sending ‘non-stories’ to the press they might just turn off completely and ignore you even when you’ve got something that’s timely, impactful and relevant.

Once you’ve judge your story to be of interest to the press, you now have to consider about how you get the attention of hyper-busy journalists and editors. There are so many online platforms for news that are desperate for visual content which can attract the atttention of their audience. Knock-out visual content that accompanies your release will always receive more attention from editors than pure text. Videos and good quality pics can give your press release an edge in a congested market. Note of caution, highly compressed picture files you’ve been sharing on Whatsapp do not count as good quality visual content.

What does everyone else think?