A news release is an official written statement delivered to the media and the public to inform them of timely, relevant and newsworthy information or events. To the greatest extent possible, the news release should focus on one piece of information. Communicate the who, what, when and where information early in the news release in a straightforward way; the “why” of its importance should be clear if you send the news release to a relevant audience.

Always make the organization issuing the news release the subject of the news – you wouldn’t want somebody else issuing news about you! For example, Acme Corporation would write “Acme Hires Jones as CEO,” rather than “Jones Joins Acme.”

A news release must be written objectively. Write as if your news release is an article written by a journalist. A news release is NOT an advertisement! It should not sound like an attempt to sell a product or service.

Every news release sent through readMedia MUST contain:

• Accurate contact information – Members of the media need to be able to reach somebody to answer questions on your organization’s behalf.
• Left-aligned paragraphs – Releases should be aligned with the left column without indentations.
• Standard text – Text written in all capital letters will be converted to lowercase.
• Unique headlines – News releases with original content in their headlines are more appealing to readers. Generic headlines like “Media Advisory” will be edited to include more details.
• Well written content – Releases with excessive grammar or spelling errors may be sent back to the issuer for corrections.

News releases must comply with our editorial guidelines. readMedia reserves the right to reject the following:

• Advertisements – Any content that reads or acts as an advertisement or links to promotions will be rejected.
  
• Adult content – Every news release issued through readMedia must be appropriate for an average newspaper reader.
• Duplicate stories – Sending the same story more than once in one day damages both our credibility and yours. Similar stories should contain corrections to a previous story or be targeted to a different audience.
• Editorials, op-ed pieces or reviews – None qualify as a news release. Any content submitted that resembles an editorial or opinion piece will be rejected.
• First-person narrative – News releases should be written from an outsider’s point of view – only use I, we, or us in quotes.
• Malicious material – readMedia will not release news that attempts to harm another person or organization’s reputation either implicitly or explicitly.
• Multiple stories in one release – A news release should be one news story with one headline.
• News about other organizations – Your releases must deal with news or events related to your organization. News written as if it originated from another organization will not be distributed.
• Non-English language releases – If we can’t read it, we will not distribute it.
• Non-original or copyrighted content – Every news release must be written by and originate from the organization that owns the account. We will not republish a news story somebody else wrote about you.
• Poorly-written content – All news releases must follow rules of good grammar and spelling.
• Religious materials – While news announcements and events from religious organizations are welcome, personal or religious beliefs should not be expressed in news releases.
• Slanderous material – The news discussed in your release must be factual, verifiable and non-malicious.