THE LIST OF CONTENTS

Introduction 3
1 Role of written communications in public relations 5
2 The press release as a kind of communications and main requirements of 8
creating its design and content
3 Recommendations on improvement for the writing of press releases 16
Conclusion 19
Bibliography 20
 INTRODUCTION

The term "communication" is now widely used in almost all human sciences,
starting with sociology, psychology, linguistics, and now, for more than fifty years,
it serves for younger disciplines such as advertising and public relations.
Communication is a socially conditioned process of information transmission
and information perception in the conditions of interpersonal and mass
communication through different channels by means of various communicative
tools. Public relations, using various means of communication, is a dynamic and
flexible system of public administration in a wide variety of human activity areas —
in business, politics, education, medicine, charity, entertainment, sports, etc. Public
relations in the implementation of its activities use a wide range of communication
tools, but written communication is one of the most important among them. A public
relations specialist should be able not only to express thoughts accurately, correctly
and concisely, but also to clothe them in the appropriate form, which is dictated by
the type of written communication and the situation.
The theme of this reference work, without doubts, is relevant. Each specialist
in public relations should be able to speak their mind ideally not only orally, but
also in writing, continuously improve their skills (including writing skills), as the
requirements for everything change over time, become tougher.
The purpose of this work is to determine the requirements of creating a press
release in the specialist work system in public relations. Press release is the main
document of written communication in mass media. The effectiveness of PR
activities depends on the correctness of its writing: whether the press release will be
interested by journalists, and, consequently, whether it will be published and
communicated to the intended target audience.
The following tasks are set for achievement of the purpose:
- To learn and describe a concept of press realize and find out the role of
written communications in public relations;

2
 - To study the press release as a kind of communications and define the main
requirements of creating its design and content;
- To give recommendations on improvement for the writing of press releases.
The problem of defying the requirements for the content and design of thе
press release is examined from every angle nowadays, involving such disciplines as
social science, marketing, economy, sociology, psychology, etc. Such scientists as
Sam Black, Frank Jefkins, Kira Ivanova and Galina Tatarinova have investigated
an international environment and international trade. They were trying to get a better
understanding of this process and that is the reason why we have used their literature
in this work as the main theoretical base.
Compositionally the examination includes introduction, theoretical and
practical parts, the conclusion and the list of the used sources.

3
 1 ROLE OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS IN PUBLIC RELATIONS

Speaking about a role of written communications, it is necessary to consider

communications as process of transfer and exchange of information in general.
Communications are a basis of interaction of any organization. It has an external
environment and also defines the atmosphere in the organization that is why
communications have particular importance of studying public relations.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to define the important concept. It is connected with the
fact that communications have the psychophysiological and social nature and also
are a part of management process. Thus, different aspects of interpretation of a
concept create difficulties in its definition.
Communications are subdivided on various bases. In literature the big variety
of options which sometimes are difficult for correlating with each other meets.
On the nature of coding of information, irrespective of specifics of the
recipient, communications divide into the following types:
- oral,
- written,
- verbal,
- nonverbal,
- electronic (not electronic).
However, two main forms of exchange of information in public relations are
oral and written communications.
Oral communications – those which are carried out in direct communication.
For this kind of communications the following features are typical [2, pp.30-47]:
- the situation of communication unites speaker and listener for
achievement of a common goal;
- the great value is played by nonverbal communication (facial
expressions, gestures, a pose, etc.);

4
 - immediate reaction of the interlocutor helps to build further speech
work, however their form is not always perfect.

Oral communications in public relations are the presentations, press

conferences, briefings, performances before audience, reports, discussions,
performances on television and radio, etc. Quite often public relations are identified
with the system of oral communications.
Written communications are communications of which are characteristic
delay of feedback between the addressee and the sender, seldom united by the
general situation of communication, the big clearness, clarity and a razvernutost,
than at oral communications. Such communications are carried out is mediated, by
means of the texts recorded on paper or other carriers. The specialist in public
relations needs to own not only ability to beautifully state the thoughts aloud and
also to competently make out them on paper. Therefore the ability to write is
considered one of the main qualifications of the expert of this profile.
Work on ensuring strong reputation of firm or organization demands
preparation and distribution of a large amount of various text materials, especially
information character. The texts initiated by specialists in public relations exist in
uniform communicative space together with text kinds of adjacent communication
forms – journalism and advertizing. Let's consider features of written
communications in public relations:
- large number of different types,
- submission of all texts in public relations of the general strategy and
tactics of the carried-out company, the carried-out program, the purpose of formation
of positive image of the company
- written communications in public relations are used in combination
with visual effect. [1, pp.10-14].
The written communications applied in public relations: press releases,
addresses, statements, invitations, business letters, leaflets, information letters,
baylayner, analytical notes, reviews, image articles.
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 G.N. Tatarinova in the work "Management of the public relations" noted: "…
any kind of written communication is some kind of business card of the organization
or firm" [5, pp.130-142].
So, in this work communication will be understood as the organized
communication accompanied with information transfer or exchange of it. In the
sphere of public relations of communication are the significant tool, to the serving
purposes of formation of positive image of the organization in the opinion of the
public. This purpose is also carried out by the types of communications considered
above.

6
 2 THE PRESS RELEASE AS A KIND OF COMMUNICATIONS
AND MAIN REQUIREMENTS OF CREATING ITS DESIGN AND
CONTENT

There is a set of kinds of written communication in professional activity of

the specialist in public relations . Among them one of the most important is the press
release. This information is intended for media and serves as some kind of means of
maintenance of contact with journalists or edition. Select certain rules of drawing
up, writing and mailing of the press release. In order that the press release was
successful, that is realized the expectation which sent it it is important not to forget
about one its essential component. It is information occasion [2, pp.22-31]. The press
release will be a priori doomed to failure in case information occasion is
"insignificant". In this chapter some nuances will be considered by preparation of
press releases.
The press release is a simple and effective remedy of transfer of exact and
operational information about a basic PR-subject and also establishments of contacts
with journalists. There is a set of definitions of the press release.
A.D. Krivonosov offers the following interpretations of a concept the press
release:
- “official communication issued for publication in the press or
distribution through the broadcast media ... press offices, headquarters of various
organizations”,
- “small, intended for the press, the organizational document that
contains the actual message”,
- “the main genre of PR-texts, carrying up-to-date operative information
about the event, concerning the basic subject of PR, intended for the press’’.
Thus, in the first case, a press release is defined as a message, in the second-
as a document, and in the third – as a genre.

7
 The developed option of a press release definition, according to U.M.
Dyomin, can sound as follows: “The press release – the operational news document
of public relations containing the short, socially important message about the
relevant facts or events anyway correlated to the pablitsidny capital of the enterprise,
addressed to members of the media for informing the public and reflecting the
official point of view of the management of the enterprise”.
Authors of the book “Public relations: the theory and practice” A.N.
Chumikov and M.P. Bocharov define the press release as follows: "The press release
is the message for media containing information potentially interesting to wide
audience".
In this paper, the interpretation of the concept is taken as the fundamental
definition of a press release. Tatarinova: “Press release-information containing news
about the activities of the basic PR-subject, prepared for distribution to the media or
journalists.”
The popularity of the press release-in the opinion of both public relations
specialists and media representatives – is due to its high efficiency, based on several
obvious advantages. These include:
- informative, since the content (main text) of the press release is a
statement of facts without any comment;
- relevance due to the novelty of the information contained therein;
- accuracy (accuracy) based on the official nature of the source of
information;
- concreteness arising from the “binding” of the content of the press
release to a strictly defined information occasion (event, fact);
- brevity, because the press release is, first of all, operational-news PR-
document;
- simplicity and speed of preparation-as the press release is characterized
by a strictly limited amount of text and the same type of content;

8
 - universality, meaning in practice the suitability of the press release for
the creation of a wide range of secondary (journalistic) materials;
Let's pass to the description of the principles of drawing up the press release
and we will begin with such structural element as heading which in many respects
defines success of all press release. From heading the essence of the message and its
importance for audience of the concrete edition has to be clear. The main task of
heading - to draw attention of the editor therefore it has to briefly, capaciously and
accurately formulate the main contents of the press release.
The heading has to correspond to functional information orientation of the
press release that assumes refusal of the stylistic delicacy, bright phrases beaten a
cliche and superlative degrees.
The contents of the press release are based on the principle of the turned
pyramid: the basic is stated first of all, and then degree of the importance and
importance of information decreases.
The turned structure gives the following advantages: first, the reader or the
journalist checking article from first lines learns the most important (even if will not
read up material); secondly, if on a newspaper strip there is not enough place, the
editor will be able to reduce without serious consequences material, having removed
additional data and comments, but not having missed the main thing; thirdly, the
saturated beginning draws and keeps attention of the reader.
Usually the essence of the message is stated in the first paragraph, a lead
(lead), and in the subsequent details are told. The lead paragraph has to give answers
to questions:
Who is a participant of an event? What the event is? When it took place or
will take place how many will last? Where? Why it occurred? How or how? (5 Wh-
questions: Who, What, When, Where and Why; and one How?).
The lead paragraph has to remind a summary of all message (no more than 4-
5 lines).

9
 Thus, the heading and the first paragraph are key components of the press
release. The capacious informative heading and the news which is accurately stated
in the first paragraph in many respects decide the press release future.
In the press release usually it is required to prove relevance and the all-
importance of the message - why it should be published. The maintenance of news
defines degree of success of the press release: the news which is buttressed up by
facts is stronger the further the press release will extend. How well the author of the
press release will manage to explain all importance of news, so expedient it will
seem to the editor.
S. Black defines the following basic rules for the preparation of press releases:
- Use only one side of the sheet.
- Leave enough wide margins on the left and right.
- Don't make any underscores, even in the title. Editors prefer to decide
what to highlight.
- All paragraphs except the first one should start with a red line.
- Press releases containing some news should have a headline that
conveys the essence of the news, but it should not be “abstruse”. Editors prefer to
make their own headline.
It is necessary to emphasize the importance of “a human factor” in the press
release which is implemented in the quotation speech. Quotes of representatives of
the organizations, experts, leaders of public opinion or consumers give to the
message authoritativeness, reliability, persuasiveness that increases the made
impact. All comments and quotes have to belong to officials.
When using quotes specialists in public relations need to take distinction of
oral and written forms of the speech into account. The most convenient mode of
work with the text in this regard - either editorial editing of quotes of performances,
or use of specially prepared statements. Besides, in journalism and public relations
preference is given to statement in the present that not only creates effect of
presence, but also allows not to tie the quote strictly to the certain taken place event.

10
 Press releases can strongly differ with extent of specification of the offered
information and, therefore, volume. Most public institutions, organizations and
ministries prefer the most laconic style of submission of the message.
Instead of the habitual coherent text originators chose as model the list which
very accurately structures information (by this principle the most part of information
messages of this ministry is made). At the same time the press release begins with
the lead answering the most important questions: When? What? Who?, then answers
to the specifying questions are given: In what occasion? When? Where? How to
take part?
Certainly, many press releases are constructed according to more difficult
scenario. For example, if several kingpins participate in a press conference, and the
circle of questions for discussion is not limited to one aspect, then the press release
has to reflect all these key moments.
In this way the press release devoted to holding a press conference “Small
and medium business — command of time is built, for example,”. Actually the lead
is taken out in heading, he represents an essence of the message and answers
questions: Who? What? When? Why? After that the main subjects of discussion are
in more detail described, participants of a press conference and the place of its
carrying out are specified (Where?), issues of accreditation make a reservation and
contact phone numbers are given. It should be noted that in the majority of the press
releases reporting about press conferences, the heading and a lead are kind of united
in a single whole in order that the essence of news was clear at first sight. In terms
of contents press releases are usually subdivided into two main types depending on
their temporary correlation to the taking place event: press release announcement
and news press release. The press release the announcement precedes an event,
notifies on it journalists and invites them to take in it part.
The news press release (or news-release) describes already taken place event,
announces the made decision or contains the report on the course of the Held
meeting. News press releases often remain the organizations as a type of the
reporting and storage of information. For example, before holding a socially
11
significant conference the announcement which is functionally playing an invitation
role can be distributed at first the press release, and following the results of the news
press release is published. Need of use of press releases of both types depends on
character and the scale of news and on intentions of specialists in public relations.
Let's stop on technical rules of execution of the press release now. The main
recommendations are given below.
1. By means of the word “press release” or its Russian equivalent
"information for the press" is specified in the top of the page the nature of the
document.
It is better to print the press release on the form of the organization to give it
professional shape and to make it recognizable for the editor. Therefore, the full
name and the postal address of the company, the trademark, numbers of contact
phone numbers and the fax by which it is possible to ring day and night time, the e-
mail address and the website is specified.
Many organizations developed own corporate style that their goods or
advertizing messages learned at first sight. Own style can consist in an emblem, a
look and type of a font, color or in a combination of these means (for example, style
of Sberbank). It allows the editor to select this or that press release from a set of the
messages received daily.
2. A surname, the name, a middle name and a position of the employee which
edition can contact to obtain all interesting information are surely entered - the
employee who deals with this issue and is rather competent to solve possible
problems.
3. On the press release it is necessary to specify date, and it should be repeated
in the bottom left corner of the last page if the press release long. As a rule, the
number when the press release is received is specified and it has to be widespread
on media channels.
4. If it is necessary that the press release was not published to a certain term,
temporary embargo is used: “For the publication on September 1 12:00”. However
it is not necessary to resort to such embargoes without special need. It is much
12
simpler to transfer material with calculation of day of its immediate publication.
Need for embargo can arise if it is necessary to state the speech which will be
delivered in some certain time. If there is no need for embargo, in the left corner of
the page the mark “to the publication” or “for immediate distribution” is put (For
Immediate Release). It means that news is ready to immediate publication.
5. The heading is placed on the center of the page. It is necessary to aspire,
that it kept within one line.
6. The text is printed on one party of a leaf, through two intervals, with big
fields for the editor's notes (3-5 cm).
In the Russian practice this format is seldom observed.
7. The press release has to be short - it is desirable that it was located on one
page (about 300 words). If information occupied two pages, at the end of the first
leaf in the bottom right corner the mark “see further” is put. It is more preferable to
give additional information in the annex to the press release, than to do the long
press release. It is possible to report about existence of photos on a subject or to put
prints of pictures.
8. It is considered that paragraphs have to be short - six lines at most; at the
same time the significant phrase has to contain no more than 12-13 words in
Russian. Such phrase, without tiring the reader, it is capable to report in a compact
form one of the ideas of the press release. Words should not be broken off for
transfer. The paragraph has to come to an end on the page, but not be transferred to
following.
9. At the end of the press release it is necessary to repeat the contact address
and phone and to enter a name and the address of the person who can give additional
information if necessary.
10. At the very end of the text of the press release the space becomes and on
the center of a line the sign “###” which indicates the material termination (the
international standard) is printed.
11. The press release on behalf of the organization is signed by her
representatives.
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14
 3 RECOMMENDATIONS ON IMPROVEMENT FOR THE WRITING OF
PRESS RELEASES

So, as it was established in this works, information occasion ─ the major

element for writing of the press release. Therefore, if there is no information
occasion - there is no occasion to write the press release.
It is necessary to consider certainly such important feature as brevity, the
press release - is, first of all, the operational news document.
The press release - the short information message addressed to representatives
of mass media. The press release contains news about the organization or the
individual has strict structure: heading, lead, main part of the message, direct speech
of the speaker, contact information. In order that information occasion did not
remain unaddressed and appeared on a table of the editor, but not in a mailbox
basket, the press release has to conform to the following requirements:
- To contain an interesting information occasion;
- To have the heading drawing attention, the short and accurately
reflecting text of release;
- To formulate the informative lead enticing to further reading;
- Information has to be disclosed on the principle of "the turned
pyramid";
- To possess one or several quotes / the direct speech of the speaker on
the announced subject or the lifted problem;
- To contain summary of the company and data of the contact person;
The press release has to be written in a clear and living language from the third
party excluding use of personal pronouns. Be careful of difficult phrases and turns.
The volume of the press release should not exceed one page of the printing text, and
in it the basic facts without excessive specification have to be stated.
1) Interesting information occasion and its relevance. Information - perishable
good. The main feature of the press release - its efficiency. Therefore information
provided in media by means of the press release has to be submitted in due time.
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Otherwise it is not news any more, so, will definitely not find an echo in media. The
press release has to be based on an interesting information string. Any news can be
given differently.
2) Submission of information on the principle of "the turned pyramid". As the
target audience of the press release - journalists, information has to be had by the
principle of "the turned pyramid" here, that is from the most important to less
significant. Having arranged the most interesting information in the beginning, it is
possible to count that such giving will attract a look of the editor of media.
3) The heading drawing attention. Heading - the most important part of the
press release. It has to be short, but at the same time capturing the essence of the
press release and drawing attention. The maximum size of heading - 100 signs. Here
answers to the questions “Who / To Whom Did Happen?’’ and “Red Thread of News
/ What Has Happened?’’ contain.
Example:
“The company Xenum: manufacturers of Toyota and Lexus offered a
specification of a new motor oil”.
4) Informative lead. This is the first paragraph of the press release. Its main
goal is to attract readers, so it should be as informative and interesting as possible.
Lead contains a summary of the essence of the event. Here are the answers to the
main questions: Who? What? Where? When? and How? The lead starts with
specifying the place and date of his writing.
Example:
“February 18, St. Petersburg. Xenum has introduced a new synthetic energy-
saving engine oil to the market. The product is designed to meet the latest
specifications and technical requirements of Toyota/Lexus vehicle manufacturers.”
5) Existence in the text of the quote on the set subject. The press release
comprising the quote has more chances to be the editor of the newspaper or
magazine published on the information website and noticed. At the same time the
quote can be reprinted by journalists without changes and distortions that often
happens to other parts of the text. The quote in the press release is used as an
16
auxiliary element and can be located right after a lead, in the main part of the press
release. The quote will serve as direct confirmation or a specification of all
information occasion of the press release.
6) Existence in the text of information on the company and contact
information.
At the end of the press release short reference information is surely had on
the company. Besides, a contact information is reported: the person, a position,
phone, the e-mail address, the website address - for possible reference and
specifications.
Additional recommendations:
1. All paragraphs, except the first, have to begin with the new paragraph.
2. It is better not to do any underlinings and allocations: editors prefer to
decide what needs to be allocated.
3. Quotes are used only for designation of the direct speech. And names of
grades and brands of a quote are not put.
So as it was established in this work, a public relations specialist should have
the ability to express their ideas in a beautifully manner. This applies to both oral
and written communications.

17
 CONCLUSION

Speaking about a role of written communications, it is necessary to consider

communications as process of transfer and exchange of information in general.
Communications are a basis of interaction of any organization. It has an external
environment and also defines the atmosphere in the organization that is why
communications have particular importance of studying public relations.
Written communication (press release in particular) is one of the most
important means of communication for a public relations specialist.
During the work it was found that when writing an ideal press release it is
necessary to comply with the basic requirements of writing a press release, its
external and substantive characteristics and design.
The correct writing of a press release - the key to publication in the media.
In conclusion, we should say that the aim of the work has been achieved, tasks
are solved, namely:
1. we have learned and described a concept of press realize and find out
the role of written communications in public relations;
2. we have studied the press release as a kind of communications and
define the main requirements of creating its design and content;
3. we have given recommendations on improvement for the writing press
releases.
The purpose of the work is fulfilled: we determined the design and content
requirements of the correct oral and writing press releases and its basic requirements
in the system of work of a specialist in public relations with the media.

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