In conducting a series of interviews with editors and journalists across the country, we asked the question: What single factor influences you most in choosing which press releases you read? The responses were overwhelmingly slanted to one thing: "Keep it relevant." To quote Barnaby Feder of The New York Times who perhaps said it best, "Whether it's related to something I'm covering is the biggest influence. I'll read a bad release that's relevant before reading something well written but misdirected."

Maybe those old English teacher rules don't hold as much water in today's media pool. While Mr. Feder is certainly not advocating producing sloppy copy with misspelled words and grammatical glitches in press releases, he is emphasizing the importance of sending the right material to the right media people.

Unless you use a professional press release distribution company, you need to be vigilant about sending your press releases to the proper markets. To send a new product press release announcing a pill for motion sickness to a technical editor of a business newspaper is a plain waste of time, yours and the media person's. To send such a release to a travel editor would be a much wiser choice. Lots of motion is involved in travel such as on cruise ships, airplanes, trains, buses and cars so this would be 'relevant' to a travel editor, columnist or writer.

You could send the "Gettysburg Address" to a history columnist and it might get used. But send it to a food editor and it'll hit the trashcan faster than you can say Abe Lincoln. Send a new investor tool kit announcement to a business editor, it may or may not get used depending upon how it's written, chances are, though, it will at least get read. Send the same press release to a medical editor, and unless it involves some new innovative medication or tool, it will also end up in the circular file, in a heartbeat.

The bottom line is that all press releases should be well written to have a fair chance at getting media attention. But as Mr. Feder says, unless it's something he is covering, he's not interested, no matter how well written it is.

Remember to write your press releases to a specific market and then send it only to that market. This will increase your chances of getting it read. The next time you write a press release, post a sticky note on your monitor that reads, "Keep it relevant."

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