Course summary

A press release is among the most powerful communications tools available to your business. It’s channel-agnostic, discoverable, far-reaching – and largely free to send.

Now, media relations professionals have the added support of using generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools to streamline their workflows, develop news angles, analyse competitor news and adjust the work to suit different audiences.

At this media release writing course, learn to build conversations around your product, service, launch or other news using a soundly structured press release. We’ll practice how to convey genuine news value, write strong headings and draft compelling spokesperson quotes. We also learn about AI tips, cautions and prompts that save time – while not compromising on the integrity of your work.

The course includes discussion of several effective and ineffective press releases, drawn from sectors including government, not-for-profit, technology, leisure and others.

Participants will complete a mix of pair, group and solo work. You’ll work on your own press release (or a fictional scenario), following a proven step-by-step process, then receive real-time feedback from our facilitator. Many of the exercises incorporate AI steps that speed up the process involved, including a final strategic edit. The course ends with a discussion of practical strategies for distributing a media release in a contemporary digital landscape.

Learning in an interactive setting alongside other skilled peers, you’ll gain a renewed sense of how powerful a well-written press release can really be.

Aims

Many public relations professionals have backgrounds either in journalism or marketing. Press releases incorporate elements of both disciplines: the impartial tone and inverted-pyramid structure of news writing, plus the subtle branding and message control of marketing. The aim of this course is to learn how to balance these and other skills, ensuring your press releases are targeted to the audience, using a recognisable press release structure and a style that sounds like you.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• balance AI efficiency with human judgement in press releases
• develop the best news angle from eight core possibilities
• write a correct press release structure
• choose one of four timeless styles for an attention-grabbing heading
• edit your press release so it avoids the four basic pitfalls of the amateur writer
• develop a cross-promotion plan that follows a basic three-part structure.

Content

1.     How AI enhances PR

Do’s, don’ts and the different modes of artificial intelligence (AI) to know when planning, writing and promoting press releases. We also share a prompt formula that will vastly improve the results you get from working with AI.

2.    What is news?

Overview of what makes news, how this applies to your company’s message, and how to use AI to ensure you develop the angles most relevant to your audience and the media.

3.    Plan your piece

Essential housekeeping tips such as keyword placement, fact-checking, quote sourcing and how to streamline approvals, using AI to verify and probe information as needed.

4.    Write the release

Introduction to the inverted pyramid structure, addressing the six Ws (who, what, where, when, why and how), sentence and paragraph linking techniques, headlines and best-practice spokesperson quotes.

5.    Self-editing

Self-editing steps including checking for media-friendly language, ensuring clear and concise expression, adopting a spoken-English style for quotes, and minimising jargon.

6.    Related PR activities

Even if you don’t cross-promote your own press releases, it’s important to understand the legwork involved. This includes understanding the promotional landscape, cultivating media relationships, building hype ahead of the release, and making strategic partnerships. 

Who this course is for

This course is ideal for mid-level PRs and hands-on business owners who want to write their own press releases with more clarity and cut-through.

Prerequisites

You do not need to have a background as a public relations professional. However, you will gain more from the workshop if you have had some experience writing press releases, or wondered why some stories have more cut-through than others.

Delivery style

This interactive workshop uses a mix of discussion, group and individual exercises, textbook press releases and real-life examples. You will write at least two press releases – one crafted as a mock example based on a series of textbook points, and another on a topic of your choice. Those releases will be discussed and critiqued verbally.

Delivery modes

• Face-to-face, presenter-taught training using your own device
• Online training via the platform Zoom

Materials

A course workbook is shared electronically as an editable PDF, allowing you to save your notes directly onto the file. 

What you need to do before the course

Please bring your laptop, with logins ready to access your preferred AI platform (we suggest Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude.ai). 

You will work on at least two scenarios from your own workplace, and we suggest you arrive with a draft of this work ready to use (feel free to bring a hard or soft copy of your draft press release, along with files containing any facts and figures you plan to draw on). If you do not have any work in progress, you may work on our fictional classroom scenario instead.