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Oleh Xwadiuk Few people will disagree that good press relations are a must in any organization, business or social. The big business spends huge sums to hire specialists for that purpose. The small outfit usually tries to do the job on its own. But, big or small there is general agreement among edi tors, American as well as Uk rainian, that the job of these people do is fairly poor and often — terrible. “News releases” or press hand outs have become the main way of transm itting news items about an organization to the newspaper or magazine. Unfor tunately, the m ajority of these releases land in the wastebasket, and editors are just as unhappy about the situation as those who write the releases. Too often, the only useful thing about some re leases are the paper clips hold ing the sheets together. To begin with, there are cer tain basic publicity do’s and don’ts. In the category of do’s: re member to put all pertinent facts into the release; let the editor cut your story; learn the dead lines, the hours when the papers go to press; and, get your story in a day or two in advance; set up a news-gathering staff with in your organization, in order to make your own job as effective as possible; and, finally, make sure that all names and address es given in your story are cor rect. The dont’s — and these are very im portant: never submit a story after an event takes place — it is almost certain to be too late for the paper’s schedule; never ask an editor to print a story as a favor — editors, though you may know them per sonally, have a duty to their readers — unless your story is legitimate news, it has no place in the newspapers ; never editor ialize — for example, never say “all Blankville citizens should at tend” — such comments belong in the editorial columns, not news columns. Keeping this in mind, let’s get down to the task at hand. The first question that comes us is W hat is News? There are almost as many def initions of news as there are newsmen. The academic defini tion of news was made by Dean M. Lyle Spencer of the Univer sity of W ashington nearly 40 years ago. He believed that news is “any event, idea, or opinion that is timely, that interests or effects a large number of people in a community and that is capa ble of being understood by them .” Turner Cratledge, managing editor of The New York Times, once gave a simple, professional definition. He said “news is any thing you didn’t know yester day..” The cynic’s definition of news which is sometimes very true, states that “news is what editors say it is.” And, finally, a state ment of fact: “news is what is printed in newspapers.” There is wide disagreement on all these definitions, particular ly the last one, since there is no guarantee that newspapers print news. Having established what makes, or more accurately, what is news, we should concern our selves with putting the story across. First, make sure that the story reaches the right editor. The neater and simpler the ap pearance of the news release, the more chance it has of being put to use. Editors prefer handling standard-size sheets, 8V-> by 11 inches, of plain white paper with double-spaced typewriting to permit easy editing. Never, but never, do it in long hand. The main part of the release, the — who, what, when, where, why and how — belongs in the first paragraph. The details of the event along with any perti nent quotes follow in the next paragraphs. If the release is longer than one page, the word “more” or “continued,” should be written at the end, and the pages should be numbered. The length of the release depends on the importance of the story, but as a rule, the shorter versions fare better. It is a good idea for the sender to put his name and telephone number on the release in case the editor wants to reach him for more information. Accuracy is of the utmost im portance. Check and re-check names and titles mentioned in the release to make sure that they are correct. Double check all statistics. Nothing makes an editor look or feel more foolish than to print that “so-and-so was elected to the post of president for the third tim e” and have an alert reader point out that this was the first time. Any items received from that source in the future will be destined for the round file. Newspaper editors across the country complain that those who send releases do not observe the elementary rules of courtesy, care, and common sense in sub m itting materials. It seems that they do not know what goes on in a newspaper office. They don’t know the deadlines. Some call up the city editor ten min utes before deadline and want to talk about a story for the next day’s edition. Others submit НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ — ЛЮТИЙ, 1967 15 Press Relations
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