What’s My Angle? Three Simple Steps to Framing a Better Press Release

Arguably, the single most important skill you as a public relations professional have is your ability to write a news release that guarantees coverage for your client. Essentially any press release can be broken down into three components: Your organization’s standard format including contact information and boilerplate, the five W’s, and finally your angle. Though the former two come with a certain level of homogeny, it’s in your angle that determines your true value. For some, identifying the angle can be the most difficult aspect of writing a press release. To others it may come a bit more naturally. In the next few paragraphs, I will do my best to outline what it takes to create the perfect news angle for any event or issue you might encounter as your client’s public relations guru.

Before identifying your angle, it’s wise to consider what news makers are looking for in a potential story. No respectable publication is going to give your story consideration if they don’t think it’s newsworthy. But what makes a story “newsworthy?” In the most straightforward since, anything that at least one reporter and one editor believe is news may be considered newsworthy. When given this status, newsworthy stories usually entail a set of criteria or elements deemed important by both the casual reader and a responsible journalist. They include the following:

1. Proximity – The closer it happens to your reader, the more relevant it tends to be.
2. Impact – Affecting a lot of people on a massive scale
3. The Bizarre – Something that accurse out of the ordinary for your reader. The most widely used example is “Dog bites man” versus “Man bites dog.” Which would you consider bizarre?
4. Timeliness - the more recent that something has occurred, or is about to occur, the more newsworthy it is considered. Unless you have what could be considered an “Evergreen” story, it’s usually old news.
5. Prominence – Important people, places or events are cause for greater readership and thus are considered newsworthy. A juicy scandal is usually cause for a media frenzy
6. Conflict – A struggle between opposing forces leading to change in the community. A bonus goes to the story that shows how a person or group has overcome adversity.

Step One: Begin the day by brainstorming with the daily paper.

Refer to major sources like The New York Times, Nation Public Radio, or Associate Press for national headlines as well as your local news and alternative news publications for a pulse on what’s going on in your community. Make a habit of highlighting any headline that might be relevant to whatever it is you’re promoting. Other sources to consider for finding strong story ideas include but are not limited to:

1. Your Customer’s and client’s questions
2. Targeted social media groups relevant to your organization’s agenda
3. Financial Dailies for ways you can use fluctuating interest rates for a news hook
4. Trade Publications for new trends, consumer information, and business developments

Step Two: Address a Point of Interest “Tell a story.  Make it about me.  Get to the point.”

Keep in mind with media relations, your audience comes two-fold: The journalist you’re pitching and their readers. Throughout the process, you should be asking yourself, “What assumptions am I making about the audience?” What does your audience want to know or how might they benefit from this information? It often helps to take a step back and think of the story from a larger perspective. Other times, it might help to focus on a particular aspect of a story. For example, school-wide budget cuts may lead to the laying off of several teachers. An unfortunate fact though it may appear, it might be interesting to find out whether the same teachers are being fairly (or perhaps over) compensated for their job performance. Whatever the case, the following are some helpful approaches to getting your audience’s attention:

1. Progress – Be the first at something. How your company’s service is on the forefront of an overall industry trend
2. The unusual or unexpected – Surprising facts, out of the ordinary elements,
3. Piggy-back on what’s topical - Breaking news, a popular subject, and timely slants are great for alerting the media to your client’s expertise on that particular subject
4. Research or surveys –Important studies that may change the way your readers feel about a particular topic or issue
5. Philanthropy – Volunteer efforts, donations, and charity sponsorship are great ways to help the community at large while eliciting attention and getting up close and personal with your target audience.
6. Human interest – Specific examples of people being affected by a bigger issue, meant to elicit a more emotional response than facts and statistics
7. A local angle on a national story – Some aspect of your business is making national headlines. Describe how the local community will be affected. Have a unique perspective on a current topic. Address a recent political event and the consequences of its proposal.
8. Controversy – People are rarely in agreement on everything. Use that to your advantage as a way to elicit support from your target audience.

Step Three: Consider options for follow up stories

Finally, don’t miss the opportunity to delve further into an interesting story by passing on a follow up. Knowing full well the cause behind a particular event, it may serve you and your audience well to know the consequences of the same event. Follow up stories will give you the option to include the latest developments, additional information, and outcomes of a particular event with the added benefit of additional publicity for the same story.

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