FIVE-MINUTE MEDIA RELEASE PLANNER

Planning is key to any great media release. Use this Five-Minute Media Release Planner to map out all the core content for your next announcement.

1. Title of release: Most salient news point(s), succinct, present tense.

2. Date of release: Be strategic. What else is going on in the world/industry. When is best to announce?

3. Distribution: Sending via a news wire, to your custom media lists, both?

4. The point of this release is to... fill in the blank. What do you hope to accomplish through this announcement? What's the main objective? Once you answer these questions you may determine that a media release is OR is not the right tool to use.

5. This release leads with details about... What's the main message? Which of your 5 Ws and 3 Hs is most important (Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? How long? How much?)

6. Audience. Who is the primary audience you want to engage? Secondary audience?

7. List of Key Messages in priority order. Prioritize core concepts (broad-brush stroke messages encapsulating the essence of your organisation) and key messages (specific to this announcement/situation).

8. List of content in priority order. Don't forget spokesperson quote(s), company boiler plates.

9. Support materials. What tools do you need to support this release? Photos, bios, fact sheet(s), backgrounder(s), b-roll, transcripts, embed codes for video, and hyperlinks are all examples of what you might need.