[INSERT YOUR LOGO]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [‘EMBARGO XX MONTH, YEAR]
Contact:
Contact person
Company name
Telephone number
Email address
Website address
If not for immediate release
state until when journalists
should wait before making this
news public – they are ethically
obliged to respect this, but if
your news is truly confidential
you should consider not press
releasing it until after it is public
information!
Make sure this information is
accurate and the person will
actually be available when it
is released.
Headline
City, country, date – Opening paragraph starting immediately after the dateline
should contain the basic who, what, when, where, why of the press release.
Remainder of body text – should include any relevant information about your
announcement, about the project, for example.
Make it catchy and not too
long – avoid heavy technical
headings, but some ‘technical
fact’ can be used.
This is called the dateline.
Be sure to include benefits and the true news angle that a journalist can pick up on, his/her
‘hook’. For example, “because of this new finding, citizens of Sofia will be able to test the water
quality coming directly from the tap”.
46
Also include stock quotes – a made-up quote using “double quotation marks like this” attributed
to your manager or someone closely involved in the news or information (i.e. industry expert or
project researcher).
If there is more than one page then use --more-- at the end of the first page …and at the top
of the next page…
-- Abbreviated headline (page 2) -Remainder of text.
(Restate contact information after your last paragraph):
It is not a rule but it is better to
keep your press release to one
page where possible. If you
can’t, then use “-more-“
to indicate another page exists.
Editors note:
For photos/additional information/samples, etc.
Contact: (all contact information and/or website where downloads are available)
About the organisation (one short paragraph)
Insert one-liner about the support from the EEA Grants / Norway Grants.
###
These indicate the press
release has ended.
Semantically strong title (style Heading1) [max 10 words, key words first]
This introduction should provide a self-contained summary of the page. It should also entice readers
to click through to the full description when used separately as a web intro elsewhere on the site or in
sister sites. (style Heading2) [maximum 50 words]
[Normal Arial font, 500-550 words, or about the length of this template briefing!]
Writing for the web needs to be concise, compact and clear. This is partly because the site’s readership –
stakeholders, policy-makers, citizens, press, etc. – are busy people and readers’ attention on the web can
be notoriously short.
It is good to keep in mind that people “surf” the web, which implies they do not dwell long on individual
pages. Break text down into bite-sized paragraphs for ease of reading.
Sentences should be fairly short and simple. Paragraphs should be relatively small chunks of information in
accessible language. It is important to assume that many of the visitors will not be familiar with your jargon,
so texts should be kept as non-technical as possible.
Texts for particular sections should be consistent in structure, style and tone. All texts should be written
with the target audience(s) in mind.
Include hypertext links to relevant information where useful for further reading. In-text links do not have
to be repeated in the ‘more information’ section. Hyperlink on strong semantic words relevant to the
destination to help with search engine optimisation (e.g. you can learn about beneficiaries states on the EEA
Grants / Norway Grants website).
Cross-head (style Heading 3) [max 5 words]
To make your text more readable, break it up with a descriptive but ideally eye-catching sub-heading or
two. This helps writers order their thoughts and find the most relevant information faster.
Employ a ‘deductive’ writing pattern for each page. This ‘inverted pyramid’ approach introduces key facts
and conclusions first, then moves on to cover background and supporting facts and arguments.
This enables the reader (and keyword-crawling search engines) to identify immediately the topic of the
page. By covering the most vital information first, people who do not have time to read through to the end
can gather the most crucial points by perusing the first paragraphs.
When writing for the web, it is important that each page is self-contained or, if it is an intermediate page, it
is clear that visitors need to click for further information. Modular writing like this helps when people land
on a page through a search engine. It can also compensate for complicated/unclear navigation on your
website.
Even though it is the web, it is still important not to exceed prescribed page lengths (or character counts)
because reading long texts online and heavy scrolling is tedious. The person in charge of the web should
determine page lengths for all levels in the hierarchy (homepage, first lev