{"id":798,"date":"2006-12-20T08:15:04","date_gmt":"2006-12-20T08:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/index.php\/write-press-releases-for-readers-not-clients\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T14:44:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T14:44:21","slug":"write-press-releases-for-readers-not-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/marketing\/write-press-releases-for-readers-not-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"Write press releases for readers, not clients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u00a0write press releases,\u00a0one of the worst mistakes you can make is writing to please the boss or the PR client.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what bosses and clients like to see:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What I call &#8220;the B.S. quote.&#8221; It\u00a0sounds like this:\u00a0&#8220;The ABC Widget Company is honored to be a part of this long-standing tradition blah-blah-blah&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<li>On first reference, abbreviations\u00a0after the client&#8217;s\u00a0name to designate their professional affiliations, certifications\u00a0or college degrees so they look important.\u00a0 Some writers insert three and four abbreviations after one name, making the\u00a0sentence look like a bowl of alphabet soup.\u00a0Because most readers aren&#8217;t familiar with the designations, journalists immediately edit them out. Or, they simply hit the &#8220;delete&#8221; key, and the press release is history.<\/li>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<li>Long, pompous\u00a0boilerplate, those two or three paragraphs at the end of the release that speak in glowing terms about the company. Often,\u00a0boilerplate includes lots of\u00a0overused words and industry jargon\u00a0like &#8220;turnkey solutions&#8221; and &#8220;cross-platform applications.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<li>A press release approved by managers at all levels, including the legal department. This\u00a0gives everyone a chance to\u00a0participate in the writing and editing and, in the process, water down the release and make it difficult to understand&#8212;with\u00a0no consideration whatsoever for the end user, the reader.<\/li>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<li>Not conforming\u00a0to Associated Press style, thus making journalists work harder to make it conform. If you don&#8217;t have an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apstylebook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AP Stylebook<\/a>, get one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>John McIntyre, copy desk chief at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Baltimore Sun<\/a>, lists more pet peeves that drive journalists&#8212;and readers&#8212;crazy in this\u00a0excellent article, courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.BulldogReporter.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bulldog Reporter<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If you want to learn how to write press releases for readers and, in turn, make journalists happy, sign up for my free email course called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicityhound.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u00a0write press releases,\u00a0one of the worst mistakes you can make is writing to please the boss or the PR client. Here&#8217;s what bosses and clients like to see: What I call &#8220;the B.S. quote.&#8221; It\u00a0sounds like this:\u00a0&#8220;The ABC Widget Company is honored to be a part of this long-standing tradition blah-blah-blah&#8230;&#8221; \u00a0 On first\u2026&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/marketing\/write-press-releases-for-readers-not-clients\/\" class=\"rmlink\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":3,"wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13],"class_list":{"0":"post-798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-marketing","7":"tag-press-releases","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41138,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions\/41138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}