On June 25th, Business Wire Toronto hosted a seminar at Bloomberg’s Toronto office—home to a spectacular view of the Toronto skyline—where Bloomberg Bureau Chief David Scanlan spoke to a crowd of more than 30 of Toronto’s top-tier PR and IR professionals about how to craft an effective press release.
David’s talk focused on five “F” factors that increase the likelihood of press releases being noticed by Bloomberg’s reporters.
- First Word: Bloomberg prides itself on being a high-caliber new service. Help their reporters to be the first ones to get your news out by writing a factual, concise release.
- Fastest Word: When you or your client has company news, get it out to the media as soon as possible.
- Factual Word: This one speaks for itself, but David encourages total transparency, too.
- Future Word: Get the word out of what’s in the pipeline and include date and time of your next financials, upcoming events, etc. Reporters love this!
- Final Word: Make sure your release is thorough. Don’t leave anything out or any unanswered questions.
Additionally, David passed along a few extra special tips to the group:
- Use charts and use them as close to the top of your release as possible, especially when it comes to financials. All reporters want to know if your profits are up or down, by what percentage over the previous year and why.
- Distinguish between U.S. and Canadian currency. Don’t assume it’s obvious, it’s always better to be clear.
- And finally, write your release like you were talking to someone on the street about it. “Hey, you’re never going to believe what happened…”
Our thanks again to David and the Bloomberg Toronto office for a great event!
Local Business Wire offices host several events each year on PR, IR, SEO & media topics. Check out the Business Wire Events page to find upcoming events in your area.
Follow Business Wire events on Twitter! Hash tag #bwevents
Posted by Amy Yen, Marketing Specialist, Business Wire 
p>
