Press releases on Penn State News follow a fairly structured format. Please reference the University Public Relations Editorial Style Guide and use the following information when you are putting together a press release or news story.
Headline
This is a short phrase found above the news story. The headline serves to capture a reader’s attention, briefly summarize the story, and motivate an individual to read it. Any press release about an event should include the speaker’s name and some indication of who that person is. If space allows, you can include the date of the talk in the headline.
Note that the first word of the headline is always capitalized, but after that only proper nouns are capitalized.
Example:
Noted author, law professor James Forman Jr. to speak at Penn State on Jan. 31
Social justice advocate and former NBA player Etan Thomas to speak at Penn State
Dateline
This indicates where the action in the story takes place. Once you’ve typed your dateline, that means you don’t have to continue making references to the location. For anything happening on campus, the dateline is:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. —
Lead
This is the first paragraph of the release and the place where you list the 5Ws of your story — who, what, when, where, and why. Think of it as a continuation of your headline.
Example:
Author, social justice advocate, and former NBA player Etan Thomas will give a free public lecture from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, in 233A HUB-Robeson Center at University Park. Thomas will discuss his latest book, “We Matter: Athletes and Activism,” which includes dozens of interviews — with people like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mark Cuban, and Soledad O’Brien — on the subject of race in America.
More Biographical Information
The remainder of the story is rounded out with additional information about the speaker. Try to stick to the facts and write in a straightforward way. This is not the place to write about what a great person you think this speaker is or how excited your department is to bring them to campus.
Examples:
Prior to his appointment as chancellor in September 2017, Ben-Sasson served as the Hebrew University’s 13th president for eight years. He is also a former member of the Israeli Knesset, where he served as chair of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and headed the Knesset Lobby for Higher Education.
Ben-Sasson is a noted scholar who has written numerous books and peer-reviewed articles on topics, including Jewish communities in Muslim lands; the relationship between religion and economics; and law and spirituality as sources of authority in medieval Oriental society. Notable honors include an honorary doctoral degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; the Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Prize for Jewish History; and the Feher Prize for the Study of Jewish Heritage.
Quotes from the Speaker
Quotes help to break up your press release and add authenticity to it. Quotes from the speaker are great, but make sure you only use information that you obtain directly or that you cite the course if it’s coming from another interview.
Quotes typically have a lead-in paragraph that includes some other part of the interview and pair with the information that’s in the quote.
Example:
Kaag, who said he became “hooked” on philosophy after taking two classes at Penn State, began to write for a broader audience after receiving tenure at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Op-ed pieces in major newspapers led to his work on “American Philosophy: A Love Story,” which Kaag calls a “cross between memoir and intellectual history.”
“Philosophy at its best is to help us work through the difficult business of living,” Kaag said. “I think that was a very ancient idea when it came to philosophy and one that has been lost in the 20th century, and I wanted to try to help bring it back.”
Quotes from the Event Organizer
You can also use this opportunity to add a quote from someone within your organization who is responsible for the event, like a department head or center director. However, don’t just add a quote to add one — it should add value to the story.
Example:
“The biggest example is climate change denial, but you have athletes and celebrities saying untrue things to a large audience and influencing health behavior, too. That’s pretty big,” said Jessica Myrick, associate professor in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies. “We are beginning to develop strategies for combating this and that’s what Brian is going to talk about.”
Event Sponsors
Press releases do not need formal conclusions. Event press releases on Penn State News most commonly end with information about the organization or organizations that are sponsoring the talk.
Example:
His talk is co-sponsored by the Multicultural and Diversity and Inclusion Offices of the Bellisario College of Communications and Colleges of Arts and Architecture, Agricultural Sciences, Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Liberal Arts, as well as the Paul Robeson Cultural Center and the Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity.
Press Release Examples
View recent Liberal Arts stories and releases published to Penn State News here.