Who, What, Where, When, Why, How??? Those are the important questions that every good press release must
answer. A good press release is designed to be full of facts.

Review the attached Sample Press Releases – from the San Diego Public Library and the California Community
College’s Chancellor. These are excellent samples of a well written releases with professional formatting.
Press Releases are sent to all the media channels (newspapers, industry journals, radio, television, and
even some bloggers who write about your topics). The purpose of a press release is to grab the attention of
the media person. Ideally, they will call you for additional information, and hopefully include your
information in their publication as a news release or story for free.

The release is written to share information and peak the interest of the editor, or other news media person
it was sent to. Notice that these sample press releases:

?provide the contact information for the key person they should contact if they want more information,
photos, or an interview.
?begin with bold and clearly stated headlines to grab attention.
?the first paragraph is a summary of the whole release.
?the following paragraphs provide more facts and details.
?the last paragraph is about the company (your organization) who created and sent the press release. In the
attached examples it was the public library and the Chancellor’s Office .
?every press release should end using three pound symbols like ###. Those symbols indicate to the media
person that they have reached the end of your release.
Your assignment is to write a press release about the Gaslamp Holiday Pet Parade being held on December
11th. Visit the links below for more information on this event. Use the attached template to develop your
release. Pretend you are the marketing person for this non-profit. View the video above on How to Write the
Perfect Press Release and learn about using the "inverted pyramid" and the "W" questions
you should answer in your release. Use the sample releases from the library and Chancellor’s office as your
guides for formatting your own press release. Be sure that your release includes all the important facts
about this event. When, where, why, time, place, any benefactors, sponsors or other key information.

Visit this link to the Pet Parade to gather more details: http://www.gaslamp.org/pet-parade

http://www.gaslamplocal.com/menu/165/Events.html

Feel free to make-up content and facts about this event as needed for this assignment. The goal of this
assignment is to practice formatting and writing an excellent press release that will grab the attention of
media people to get them excited about your event. A good release may encourage them to call for an
interview, or even schedule time to film or photograph the event. Notice that all press releases end with 3
pound signs like this ### which tells the media person they have reached the end of this announcement and
there are no other pages.