• Be truthful. Start out with a punch. Spell people's names right. Spell everything right.Get your facts straight. Get everything straight. Up top put a contact person, with that person's phone number. Even if you're filing electronically, give a phone number. Newsies like to ask questions, and they do everything on the phone.
• Use the inverted pyramid style. Grab your reader in the opening paragraph. ... If you don't hook them in the first10 words, or less, you've lost 'em forever. Remember the 4 Ws: Who, What Where When.
• "Think like a fish (or a journalist)." Is your "news" news? If it reads like an ad, it isn't news (and it isn't effective advertising, either). Address it to the beat reporter who covers your organization. (A "beat" is a reporter;s standing assignment, for example city hall, county, education, the arts and so on). Better: Get to know that reporter.
• K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Use a plain-vanilla typeface or font -- Times New Roman or Arial).

Checklist: Does it have your name, address and phone number? If you're not the contact person, do you have her name, address and phone number? Is it on company letterhead, or if you're sending an electronic release is it from an organizational e-mail address instead of your personal e-mail account? Does it say FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE in capital letters at the top? (See below, too.) Do you have a headline centered in bold caps just below it?

Why call it a "news" release? Just because, that's why. That's what newsies call it, and you want to sound professional. Some releases are headed "NEWS RELEASE," but it's better to say it's for immediate release (in caps). If you absolutely have to "embargo" a story (i.e. send it out before the media can use it), the form is "FOR RELEASE (fill in time and date)." But

Here's a fill-in-the-blanks sample news release:

Contact:
     Your Name
     Address, phone number

HEADLINE GOES HERE

Links and credits. Thanks to members of my New Horizons Session E class in Communications 221 (intro to public relations) in September 2005 for researching the topic and writing up tip sheets. Contributing were Stephanie Adams, Terry Castelman, Gordon Cronin, Lisa Gaines, Sheiliane Gragg, Diane Logan, Bob Siltman, Tamara Skube and Yolanda Wilder.

For tips on using e-mail from Xpress Press, a company that specializes in sending out electronic news releases, visit http://www.xpresspress.com/PRnotes.html