Destination: Information!
Covering the Who, What, When, Where, & Why In Your Content

By now you probably have a good idea of what your topic is about, and how t write it for the eyes and ears of your audience. Now comes the easiest part of developing your press release – the main content.

It doesn’t matter if your client is wanting press for an event, product, or service – the formula remains the same. As mentioned in a previous chapter, you’ll need to sit down and detail the Five W’s of your subject. Who? What? When? Where? Why? (Or How, if Why isn’t applicable).

Once you know the basic answers to these questions, and arrange them in order of importance in your lead sentence, you’ll want to follow that order when fleshing out your story. If the Where is ultimately more important than the Who, then start with the Where first.

For our example here, let’s assume they rank in order as it appears above. Now, we can approach each issue and learn how to make the most out of each answer.

The Who

Normally, this is the most important factor that your audience will be concerned with. If a product is launching, they want to know who’s putting it out – Microsoft, or Sam’s Software? If a fundraiser is being organized – is it for the Democratic, or Republican Party candidates?

Answering the Who is perhaps the easiest item to detail. There are concrete facts and data about the Who – their name, location of headquarters, size of the company or organizations – all of the facts that make up who they are as an organization.

More specifically, the Who of a company also entails the individual people associated with it. Everyone from the maintenance worker to the CEO has a vested interest in what goes on in, and what happens to, the company.

In a press release, it’s important to hear directly from those who initiated the news in the first place. Did the President of the Company sign a deal to add 1,500 jobs t the workforce? Then quote him on the Why and When the jobs will materialize.

Has a local volunteer for your organization raised an important sum of money, or is she trying to for a specific cause? Highlight her in the story, attributing quotes to her as well in order to add credibility, and a human element to the piece.

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