If you want to grab the attention of your target audience and journalists, you need to think like a journalist. Before starting writing, they have to find the news hook, the most newsworthy element of the news story.
The hook is the critical piece of newsworthy information that is supposed to ensnare and trap your unsuspected audience and journalists and make them share your news story.
Ideally you should include your news story hook in the heading and lead paragraph. Formulating the right hook requires familiarity with your target audience and a good grasp of what makes your news story newsworthy.
Make your point early in your press release: the most engaging, important and exciting information should be at the beginning of your news release.
Answering the who, what, where, when and why questions will help you nail down the hook of your news story:
Who is referenced in this news story?
What is the news story about?
Where is the news story happening? Is the story relevant for national or regional press coverage.
When did it happen? is it still current?
Why is the news story worth covering?
Adding details helps transform a news story from vague idea into a strong message:
This is a raw idea: Acciona to build a waste to energy plant in West Brom.
This is the same raw idea with details: £1b investment to create 300 highly skilled jobs in West Brom by Acctiona for Enfinium.
Always try to add numbers, figures and location.
There are many variations of news hook that help grab the attention of the reader:
Timeliness: A timely response to something that's currently affecting your target audience.
Relevance: People are always attracted to news stories they can relate to.
Proximity: Most people care about things close to them - whether it's physically or emotionally.
Impact: How will your news story affect your audience? Journalists are always interested in how a potential news story impacts their target audience.
Human interest: Try to draw emotion from the audience by including real people in your news story.
Prominence: Prominent members of the community are natural draw for the media, including celebrities , media personalities and politicians.
Magnitude: Magnitude hook adds the element of quantity to the story, such as announcing a large number number of athletes running a local marathon or large amount of state funding for a local project.
Conflict: Conflict hook promotes issues , such as increased need for cycling path or the importance of enforcing speed limit in the neighbourhood.
Oddity: Oddity hook adds an odd element or unusual twist to the news story.
The final question you should ask is, Would you be interested to read your news story? If not it may not be worth your time.
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