By Heather Douglas
Answer: Because you let your lawyer and/or accountant write them. News flash: they can’t write their way out of a paper bag.
“A press release, news release, media release, press statement, or video release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media to announce something ‘ostensibly’ newsworthy,” says the quasi-omnipotent Wikipedia.
The lawyers write press releases identically to how they compose legal documents. The [insert name of company] (“first name of company” or the “Company”) blah, blah, blah. The accountants do the same (obviously living in fear of the legal beagles) and then provide columns of numbers with little or no interpretation, much self-congratulations on the company’s fine performance, and no real story.
The average journalist decides whether to toss this missive within 10 seconds of reading the headline and first sentence. Derek Thompson, senior editor, The Atlantic is ruthless, “I delete most releases after about 0.5 seconds spent on the subject line.”
Okay, so I’m feeling very curmudgeonly. I have just finished reading through thousands upon thousands of press releases issued by oil and gas producers plus service and supply companies (January – May, 2017 see We Get Press Releases…Thousands of Press Releases, pages 18 – 25). I’ve gone stir crazy. They are bad, worse, and awful. Many offer no context, no understanding of the journalist who must plough through the buzz-words and acronyms, and the worst sin of all – no story. I believe press releases are the laziest things many energy companies engage in.
Compare those boring, self-serving media releases with well-crafted articles published in the national and business press by gifted writers. Those are tweeted and re-tweeted. They move the stock market. They encourage the financial community to recommend the shares as a buy. They influence governments as they set public policy, update tax laws, and determine if they should impose more punitive red tape on the oilpatch. They help communities decide if they want to welcome your operations into their neighbourhoods.
Entrepreneurs and business leaders should learn to write crisp, interesting releases. Everyone has a story to sell. Each should be summarized into one formula: headline (preferably short and catchy), opening sentence (26 words or fewer answering who? where? why? when? and how?), followed by the body (with the supporting facts, quotes, and presenting why the information is important), and contact information at the bottom. The most interesting releases care about the reader and/or viewer on TV or social media:
• Who are the key players (your company, competitors, who does this news affect and how does it benefit or harm them)?
• What is new?
• Why is this important and what does it provide that is different to everyone else?
• Where is this happening (is there a geographical or geopolitical angle that is relevant)?
• What is the timing of this and how is it significant?
• How did this come about?
Many readers will shrug with a devil-may-care attitude. They are not interested in the media. Only the buy-side and sell-side analysts. “While the younger analysts tend to do a lot of data gathering, financial modeling, and spreadsheet maintenance, more senior analysts tend to spend more of their time developing investment theses, speaking with company management teams and other investors, and marketing ideas (if they are on the sell-side),” says Martha Shelton, in A Day in the Life of a Financial Analyst.
When given their preference, analysts always pick interesting, well-written news releases over the traditional “corporate-speak.” The lawyers and accountants would be shocked to hear how those same analysts mock their precious quarterly announcements (while enjoying adult beverages after work). The president and CEO and CFO would be appalled by how their quotes are scorned as “motherhood and apple pie,” or how their self-importance is lampooned by some of the most junior hot-shot MBAs.
Pity the apprentice analysts. They are at their desks at 5:30 a.m. checking the overnight news releases and scanning the newswire for events that might spike the markets into either bull- or bear-runs. They alert the senior financial specialists about important items, then go back to their dreary spreadsheets and data files. The senior folks carefully evaluate their investment spin. Do they need to change or their endorsements or tweak their “Sell Now!” advice?
High-ranking financial specialists meet with company executives to “hear their corporate story and understand the business model.” Why? They can’t figure it out from the press releases. Nor do they get a sense if the leadership team has integrity, is trustworthy or narcissistic, and truly want their operations to make a difference in the communities where they work. No, they need to eyeball them across the boardroom table to determine these important nuances.
So please give oil and gas journalists a break. We passionately care about Canadian energy and want to see this country’s resources developed and sold abroad. But if we can’t figure out what your story is, we know you’ve lost the communication battle with the activists. Take the task of writing press releases away from the lawyers and accountants and give it to the writers. They know how to tell a good story … and influence the analysts who recommend your shares, discourage the policy-makers from imposing punitive regulations on your operations, and enable your company to earn a good living producing Canada’s oil and natural gas.
#Oil #Gas #Oilandgas #Journalists #CanadianJournalism #Canada #Energy #Media #press
