At the beginning of this project, I truly had never heard the term “News Release” before. Throughout the entire process it was really nice to be able to see everyones examples and different takes on how they should be made and how they should sound. While we are not fully completed with our projects yet, I really believe that I already have a better understanding of what a news release is and the purpose that it serves. Being able to bounce ideas off each other in a small group has been really helpful.
Thankfully, any revisions that we had made were minor due to being written well in the first draft. My main thought in writing the press release was how the product could interest the local community. Having the press release be an advertising campaign would make it less likely that the press would publish it. However, if the press release highlighted it being a local company with roots in Maine, it would be seen as more of a news story to a paper like the Portland Press Herald or even the Boston Globe. Because of my experience writing press releases, I wrote them with the other two group members, using our previous notes to add further information. We mostly used testimonials we had previously written to include in the press release. Since the story also emphasized the local aspect, we made up quotes from the founder and other management within the company to the story. We also researched what would sound authentic and accurate when discussing using local materials such as fishing gear or the materials in the soap to make it environmentally friendly. The only minor changes that we made were to shorten the press release and to fix any typos that we had spotted during the peer review session.
Overall the process of creating the news release went really smoothly and I now have a much better understanding of what the requirements are/ what a news release should look like. Before this experience I honestly didn’t know what a News release was but reading the chapter in our book and seeing the examples it provided I now have a much better idea. I think my group worked well together and it was nice to have Isabella on the team because she has had some previous experience with writing news releases and made quick work of it. We did the majority of work for the news release in class and only had a few minor things to revise after peer review. I noticed during peer review how small details really stand out like the logo and choice of wording. I also learned through this process how important the formatting is of a News release. One comment that we got on ours that stood out to me was someone said that we had a lot of quotes but we had enough other stuff in there that the quotes didn’t take over. In the future if I ever have to write another News release I will look back at this assignment and the book and I will be ahead of the game.
I think overall the newsletter process is going well as we have written two draft versions with reviews and all. The important thing we had to focus on was the tone and who were we trying to pitch it to. In the beginning, it was rough to formulate a plan/idea but as we received edits and other crucial information regarding the assignment, things became more clear. I think as a group we are working well together, as all of our ideas are being translated into the presentation piece of the project. The speed bumps we are running into are very minor issues like visuals, what to specifically say, dialogue, etc. But those kinks will eventually be worked out. For our group in particular we are trying to go for an upbeat and trendy vibe and make the product relatable for everyone. As we go through our “dry-runs” today, critical feedback will be taken into account as well as help understand what works and what does not. Very similar to the drafting days for the previous newsletters went. They can help us structure our ideas going forward. My only major concern is the structure of our presentation, as we know the product we’ve put forward in our newsletter, but how do we effectively translate that into a pitch presentation to potential investors? Also, the idea of us making ourselves stand out is crucial.
I learned a lot about the genre of News Releases through this project. I was familiar with them before we started drafting our own, but the process of writing one really helped me understand what goes into them. The biggest thing I took away from writing a News Release was that you must write objectively. It is as if you are a reporter that knows nothing about the company and is completely on the outside. It was a difficult but fun challenge to write in this way. Even though a news release is inherently promotional, trying to hide the promotion behind layers of objectivity and quotes makes it seem less so. I think my group worked well together to craft a good news release for our product. We took the constructive thoughts of our peers from the review session into consideration when editing, and that combined with our own revisions crafted the final product into what it is. I feel confident writing news releases now and I think I would be able to write one independently in the future.
I think the process has gone well and our group has done a good job at staying on track of things. It also has been very helpful to have so much on class time work because it’s a lot easier to get things done in class when we are together than to try and find time to do it after class. One struggle we have kind of ran into is the organization of things, it’s not always easy to get the pictures to work the way we need to which can be a little frustrating but we were able to figure it out. I am happy with the way our group worked together and overall we were able to do what we needed to do when we had to do it. The process of creating a newsletter was new to me however after seeing our own come to life as long as seeing the rest of the classes make theirs I feel a lot more confident in my ability to do so. I like gathering these kinds of skills because as time passes, if I continue with the writing path I will need these kinds of skills again.
Looking back on the News Release project, I found it to be a very informative and interesting practice as I hadn’t encountered this type of writing before. We made sure to match the tone of our product with the formula-like style tone that goes with the news release, and that was a great opportunity to look at how to separate a very promotional-driven brochure content from a reporting/professional style of a news release. Our group also appreciated the class time reserved for peer review, as we were able to change some formatting to make our information easy to read and more digestible for the audience. We also added more quotes which helped readers and prospective customers feel we have more credibility. The group work went well, and I always appreciate our willingness to openly communicate about how we can improve on the project and what our strengths are. For me, it was interesting to see all the work that goes on for just a seemingly simple one-page news release.
I think our group worked pretty smoothly through the news release assignment. I recently started writing press releases at my job a month or so ago, so I was familiar with all the necessary components of the document and understand what information is absolutely necessary to have a successful press release. It was great to get more exposure to this type of writing in a classroom setting, as I am currently writing one in the office. It can be a challenge not to get overly promotional when writing this, as it comes from the business rather than a third-party publication. I think our group worked well to find a healthy balance of promotion and information. At the end of the day, when people read a press release, they are going to skim it for the highlights. Having that information easy to digest is key.
I was overwhelmed with uncertainty as I started the News Release project. Even with a brochure of information to build your press release off of, it’s difficult to switch to objective, reporter language after using showy, promotional language the entire time we’ve been discussing our projects. I had to step out of a biased advertising job into an impartial journalist/news reporter position which made me feel like I was crammed into a box. Once I created a headline and formatted our document with our logo at the top, however, I had a much clearer picture in my head of how this news release should look and sound. My group members were helpful in finding stats/data and creating testimonial quotes to give our news credibility. When translating information from our brochure to the news release, it was clear to see how the AIDA model took effect and it was interesting how creating interest and desire can be done using facts and testimonials. I’ve learned that testimonials are definitely where promotional language and other biases can seep through.
Revising our news release made me realize how valuable including product/service pricing and promotions can be for enhancing desire and motivation for action. Also, including information and background about the founders and designers boosts interest in your product/service.
9 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 26”
At the beginning of this project, I truly had never heard the term “News Release” before. Throughout the entire process it was really nice to be able to see everyones examples and different takes on how they should be made and how they should sound. While we are not fully completed with our projects yet, I really believe that I already have a better understanding of what a news release is and the purpose that it serves. Being able to bounce ideas off each other in a small group has been really helpful.
Thankfully, any revisions that we had made were minor due to being written well in the first draft. My main thought in writing the press release was how the product could interest the local community. Having the press release be an advertising campaign would make it less likely that the press would publish it. However, if the press release highlighted it being a local company with roots in Maine, it would be seen as more of a news story to a paper like the Portland Press Herald or even the Boston Globe. Because of my experience writing press releases, I wrote them with the other two group members, using our previous notes to add further information. We mostly used testimonials we had previously written to include in the press release. Since the story also emphasized the local aspect, we made up quotes from the founder and other management within the company to the story. We also researched what would sound authentic and accurate when discussing using local materials such as fishing gear or the materials in the soap to make it environmentally friendly. The only minor changes that we made were to shorten the press release and to fix any typos that we had spotted during the peer review session.
Overall the process of creating the news release went really smoothly and I now have a much better understanding of what the requirements are/ what a news release should look like. Before this experience I honestly didn’t know what a News release was but reading the chapter in our book and seeing the examples it provided I now have a much better idea. I think my group worked well together and it was nice to have Isabella on the team because she has had some previous experience with writing news releases and made quick work of it. We did the majority of work for the news release in class and only had a few minor things to revise after peer review. I noticed during peer review how small details really stand out like the logo and choice of wording. I also learned through this process how important the formatting is of a News release. One comment that we got on ours that stood out to me was someone said that we had a lot of quotes but we had enough other stuff in there that the quotes didn’t take over. In the future if I ever have to write another News release I will look back at this assignment and the book and I will be ahead of the game.
I think overall the newsletter process is going well as we have written two draft versions with reviews and all. The important thing we had to focus on was the tone and who were we trying to pitch it to. In the beginning, it was rough to formulate a plan/idea but as we received edits and other crucial information regarding the assignment, things became more clear. I think as a group we are working well together, as all of our ideas are being translated into the presentation piece of the project. The speed bumps we are running into are very minor issues like visuals, what to specifically say, dialogue, etc. But those kinks will eventually be worked out. For our group in particular we are trying to go for an upbeat and trendy vibe and make the product relatable for everyone. As we go through our “dry-runs” today, critical feedback will be taken into account as well as help understand what works and what does not. Very similar to the drafting days for the previous newsletters went. They can help us structure our ideas going forward. My only major concern is the structure of our presentation, as we know the product we’ve put forward in our newsletter, but how do we effectively translate that into a pitch presentation to potential investors? Also, the idea of us making ourselves stand out is crucial.
I learned a lot about the genre of News Releases through this project. I was familiar with them before we started drafting our own, but the process of writing one really helped me understand what goes into them. The biggest thing I took away from writing a News Release was that you must write objectively. It is as if you are a reporter that knows nothing about the company and is completely on the outside. It was a difficult but fun challenge to write in this way. Even though a news release is inherently promotional, trying to hide the promotion behind layers of objectivity and quotes makes it seem less so. I think my group worked well together to craft a good news release for our product. We took the constructive thoughts of our peers from the review session into consideration when editing, and that combined with our own revisions crafted the final product into what it is. I feel confident writing news releases now and I think I would be able to write one independently in the future.
I think the process has gone well and our group has done a good job at staying on track of things. It also has been very helpful to have so much on class time work because it’s a lot easier to get things done in class when we are together than to try and find time to do it after class. One struggle we have kind of ran into is the organization of things, it’s not always easy to get the pictures to work the way we need to which can be a little frustrating but we were able to figure it out. I am happy with the way our group worked together and overall we were able to do what we needed to do when we had to do it. The process of creating a newsletter was new to me however after seeing our own come to life as long as seeing the rest of the classes make theirs I feel a lot more confident in my ability to do so. I like gathering these kinds of skills because as time passes, if I continue with the writing path I will need these kinds of skills again.
Looking back on the News Release project, I found it to be a very informative and interesting practice as I hadn’t encountered this type of writing before. We made sure to match the tone of our product with the formula-like style tone that goes with the news release, and that was a great opportunity to look at how to separate a very promotional-driven brochure content from a reporting/professional style of a news release. Our group also appreciated the class time reserved for peer review, as we were able to change some formatting to make our information easy to read and more digestible for the audience. We also added more quotes which helped readers and prospective customers feel we have more credibility. The group work went well, and I always appreciate our willingness to openly communicate about how we can improve on the project and what our strengths are. For me, it was interesting to see all the work that goes on for just a seemingly simple one-page news release.
I think our group worked pretty smoothly through the news release assignment. I recently started writing press releases at my job a month or so ago, so I was familiar with all the necessary components of the document and understand what information is absolutely necessary to have a successful press release. It was great to get more exposure to this type of writing in a classroom setting, as I am currently writing one in the office. It can be a challenge not to get overly promotional when writing this, as it comes from the business rather than a third-party publication. I think our group worked well to find a healthy balance of promotion and information. At the end of the day, when people read a press release, they are going to skim it for the highlights. Having that information easy to digest is key.
I was overwhelmed with uncertainty as I started the News Release project. Even with a brochure of information to build your press release off of, it’s difficult to switch to objective, reporter language after using showy, promotional language the entire time we’ve been discussing our projects. I had to step out of a biased advertising job into an impartial journalist/news reporter position which made me feel like I was crammed into a box. Once I created a headline and formatted our document with our logo at the top, however, I had a much clearer picture in my head of how this news release should look and sound. My group members were helpful in finding stats/data and creating testimonial quotes to give our news credibility. When translating information from our brochure to the news release, it was clear to see how the AIDA model took effect and it was interesting how creating interest and desire can be done using facts and testimonials. I’ve learned that testimonials are definitely where promotional language and other biases can seep through.
Revising our news release made me realize how valuable including product/service pricing and promotions can be for enhancing desire and motivation for action. Also, including information and background about the founders and designers boosts interest in your product/service.