Journalists are tough people. They are busy professionals who work long hours, often to incredibly tight deadlines, see the good and the bad parts of society, and have their personal and collective work published, broadcast or webcast literally to the whole world. Their products – newspapers, radio and television news bulletins, current affairs programs and magazines – change every edition, leading two Australian writers to describe them as ‘the daily miracle’. Mistakes they make are obvious to people reading, watching or listening. Journalists are criticised for what they write or don’t write, for alleged political bias, and for their cynicism. They regularly rate near the bottom of lists of which professions people say they trust most. Journalists can be pushy, arrogant, rude and grumpy. And we need to work with them as part of our professional practice. To do that effectively, we need to be aware of what they do (not all journalists are reporters, for example), and how and when they do it

Writing like a journalist means adopting the style and language that journalists use. That is vital to the success of your release because it is an approach that busy journalists recognise. If journalists can easily identify what you have produced as news, the chances of your release being reported on tonight’s television news, on radio, in tomorrow’s newspaper and on the linked media website, increase significantly.

Journalists regard one sentence as a paragraph. They write short paragraphs of usually no more than about 25 words. They use simple words and they do not waste words. They use both direct quotes and indirect quotes. They use the active voice when they write; some of their copy is in the past tense (usually indirect quotes), some in the present tense (usually direct quotes).

When writing for the media, make sure the information you use is accurate. That means you are using facts, that your grammar is accurate, you have apostrophes and other punctuation marks in the right place, and that your spelling is correct. Use a dictionary to make sure you know the correct spelling and definitions of words, and a thesaurus to find synonyms so that you use the simplest words.

What happens to your media release after you’ve distributed it?The process varies from newspaper to newspaper, and in radio and television newsrooms it is complicated by the need for sound and vision. However, the basic process is:

•    When your release arrives in the newsroom, the Chief of Staff decides that your material should be ‘covered’ and tasks a journalist to write a story. The journalist will read your release and follow it up by getting extra information from you, or by seeking comments from other people with an interest in your topic, perhaps people who oppose your organisation’s views.

•    Once the journalist has written the story it will be sent to the Chief Sub-editor who will ask one of their team to ‘sub’ the story. That involves making sure it is written in the correct style for the newspaper, radio or television news and that spelling and punctuation are correct. The sub-editor will be given specific instructions for how long the ‘subbed’ story should be—and that means that it might be shortened. In newspapers, sub-editors also write the headline for the story and make sure that it appears in the correct typeface. In radio and television, the copy that will be used by the newsreader will include instruction on what sound and vision will be used. In newspapers, the sub-editor will know whether the story will be accompanied by photographs.

•    The Chief Sub-editor will decide exactly where the story will appear in the newspaper. In the electronic media, the producer will decide where in each bulletin the story will be placed. These decisions are based on the importance of a story.

•    Most newspapers, radio stations and television stations have online newsrooms. The journalists who produce these websites will also be given a copy of the story by the journalist. The increasing use of online news and greater links between newspapers and broadcast media mean that journalists focus on this ‘tri-media’ approach to reporting and commentary.

Newspapers and radio and television stations have deadlines for receiving information for each edition. It is important that you get your media release to the newsroom well before the deadline – several hours before is best. That will enable the journalist time to write the story and for it to be edited for inclusion in the next edition or bulletin. Remember that the stories that will be in most evening television news bulletins have been decided about two hours before broadcast time. In those two hours, people in the newsroom are extremely busy and it is not a good time to ring them unless you have important, real news. The best time to talk to people in television newsrooms is in the morning and it is a good idea to plan events for mid to late morning if you want them covered by television. It is also a good idea not to ring journalists several times to ask if your release will be published. This will be regarded as pressure, sometimes harassment, and is likely to lead to your release being ignored. It is a good idea to make one call to ask if you can provide further information, but only do that well away from the journalist’s deadline.

Time and space limitations mean that Editors make hourly choices about what they’ll publish or broadcast, how much of a reporter’s story they’ll run, and where they’ll place their choices in newspapers or bulletins. These news value choices mean that Editors have to decide what is the most important news. Is it news from the war in Iraq, about bushfires or the snow season, the latest political opinion poll, transport chaos, the performance of the stockmarket, a murder, a court case, poverty in Africa, the reasons for, or impact of, climate change, or the latest findings about research on the solar system? An Editor’s decision about what the most important stories are for this day means that they will be the first covered in the bulletin, or will appear on page one of the newspaper.

That’s the competition public relations practitioners face when they attempt to have their client’s ‘news’ covered by the media.

Excerpts taken from Mahoney, J. (2008). Public Relations Writing in Australia. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.
Public Relations Writing in Australia