PR Advice for Professionals

How to Distribute News Releases

by Gloria

Unless you’re famous, the media considers few things about you to be “newsworthy.” Are you serving on a Board of Directors? Did you win an award? Get promoted? Are you speaking at a function or a conference? Did you win a new customer?

News releases about these topics typically result in only one- to two-paragraph stories in publications. But at least they keep your name and your head shot in front of your target public.

Don’t send a news release as an attachment to an e-mail. Copy your news release into the body of the e-mail. If an editor doesn’t know you, chances are he will not open your attachment.

To distribute your news release, e-mail the news release to yourself, and use the “BCC” (blind carbon copy) function of your e-mail to send the news release to the names on your media list. Don’t use the “TO” function. You don’t want the editors receiving your e-mail to see the 250 other e-mail addresses to which you are distributing your release.

Post your releases on your own Web site in a special area called “News.” To ensure your releases are included on major online news sites, send them to one or several of the news release wires. You can bypass the media and put your news release directly in the hands of your customers this way. Online news distribution services include:

• PR Newswire PR Newswire is the global leader in news and information distribution services for professional communicators.
• Market Wire Another service for professional communicators, Market Wire helps you distribute releases quickly and accurately, manage media contacts, add the richness of multimedia to your communications and monitor the news that affects you.
• Business Wire Business Wire is a global market leader in commercial news distribution. Thousands of member companies and organizations depend on Business Wire to transmit their full-text news releases, regulatory filings, photos and other multimedia content to journalists, financial professionals, investor services, regulatory authorities and the general public worldwide.
• PR Web This leader in online news and press release distribution has been used by more than 40,000 organizations of all sizes to increase the visibility of their news, improve their search engine rankings and drive traffic to their Web site.
• Online Press Releases Advertises easy-to-use software with your press release delivered directly to the editor’s e-mailbox. Targeted to your specific selection, each release is sent individually, not auto released or “blind carbon copied.” Complete database of over 28,000 media contacts in the US and Canada. You can send your releases over and over again at no extra cost.
• PR Leap is an online press release service that offers both free and paid distribution to search engines, newswires and websites. At no charge, PR Leap places your release on major search engines and distributes it to major newswires.
• PR.com is a unique business community where you have a full company profile with which to promote your business, post products and services with full descriptions and images, distribute press releases, post job opportunities, and more.
• The Open Press, Inc. is not just another free press release portal. They exact industry standards for press releases and will not allow unprofessional press releases to be submitted through their services.
• The eReleases Web site says that a press release distribution is only as good as its database and newswire partner. eReleases has an exclusive database of opt-in (subscribing) journalists.
• The Internet News Bureau is an online press release service for businesses, offering clients the ability to reach more than 14,000 journalists and business professionals who have subscribed to receive their releases.

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