The Internet is a valuable source of leads. It can open up new questions that you hadn’t previously thought to consider, and it can also point you in the direction of other lead sources who might be able to provide accuracy and credibility to your piece. If you have a library that has a public online database, it’s a great way of using the Internet and the library combined from the comfort of your own office (or home).

Interviews are another important part of researching your topic. Don’t go into an interview without first thinking through your questions. The source you’re meting with (or talking to on the phone), doesn’t have the time to waste waiting for you to fumble around with your notes and figure out what direction you want to take in your press release.

Sit down before the interview and consider the type of piece you’re writing. Then, jot down some notes on importance aspects of the topic you wish to discuss with your source. Don’t try to ask your source for “off the record” information. It will only make he or she nervous, and it feels like more of an interrogation than an interview.

Carry a mini-recorder with you to the interview for accuracy, and to make sure the meeting moves along quickly. Before you leave the office, make sure it has fresh batteries, but don’t rely on a tape alone for the notes.

Write down as much information as you can, without making the source stop and wait for you. You don’t want to have to call him back a day later asking him to repeat everything because your tape failed to record the conversation. It’s unprofessional, and will make him leery of dealing with you in the future.

Some things you might want to clarify in your meeting with a source are:

Before you go to the interview, do a bit of background research on your subject and the person you’re going to meet with. It will help to know if he left a particular corporation because of their ethical standards being lower than his expectations, or if he had a dream of building his small entrepreneurial expedition into a world-wide venture.

If you run across some sensitive information that might be damaging to others, weigh the consequences of its use before you jump in and deliver it to the public’s eyes. It’s not always best to reveal everything you know without considering how it is going to affect others.

If you present your press release with a authoritative voice, and the editor knows that you’ve done your research, he or she will be appreciative of your effort, and may in turn ask you to write even more on the topic. Once they have worked with you, ad verified your facts to be true and accurate, they’ll be impressed enough to move your submission to the top of the ranks the next time you have information that needs to get in front of the eyes of the public.

If, however, you disregard Journalistic principals, and offer a document full of misleading information, or unreliable sources, the editor won’t want to work with you in the future. It would be a waste of his time to have to re-interview, re-verify, and re-write your entire piece to a factual story he can actually print.

To write a successful press release, it takes a minimal amount of time to do the groundwork on which to lay your information. The further you go in making sure your piece has a newsworthy, trustworthy tone to it, the greater your chances of succeeding in a rewarding press release campaign.

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