Crafting Great Media Releases
About this course
A well-crafted press release remains one of the most powerful tools in your communications arsenal. Learn to write releases with structures that maximize readability and headlines that grab attention. Includes templates and practical exercises you can apply immediately.
Read a sample from this course
What Is a Media Release — and What It's For
A media release is a written statement issued to journalists and news outlets with the goal of generating coverage. It's not advertising. It's not a social media post. It's an invitation to the media to cover a story your organization has to tell.
Done well, a media release gives a journalist most of what they need to write a story — the facts, the context, a quote, and contact details. Done poorly, it gets deleted without being read.
For government communicators, media releases serve a specific public function: they put information on the public record, signal transparency, and give your community accurate information from an authoritative source. They also create a documented paper trail — which matters more than most communicators realize.
The three things every effective media release does:
- Answers the journalist's most basic question — is this a story?
- Provides everything needed to cover that story accurately
- Makes it easy to reach the right person for more information
If your release doesn't do all three, it's not ready to go out.
What you'll learn
Course Curriculum
Full access upon enrollment- 1.What Is a Media Release — and What It's For
- 2.Media Release vs Media Advisory vs News Brief
- 3.When to Issue a Release — and When Not To
- 4.The Three Core Categories: Format, Pitch, Follow-Up
- 5.Key Takeaways
Course Resources
Available after enrollment
Course details
- Self-paced
- Certificate of completion
- Lifetime access
- 6 lessons · 28 sections
- 3 downloadable resources