The purpose of company public relations is to create insofar as possible a positive image for your company in the community. The best way to do this is to furnish the media information about your company, its officers and employees and its products or services.

            The first requirement is that the news be timely. There must be immediacy about your pronouncement. There is nothing as dead as yesterday’s newspaper. The same is true of your news. If everyone already knows about it, there is no news. It may not be dead, but it’s history.

            The most interesting thing in the world is people and how they are affected by your product or service. Americans tell the story of the little old lady riding on the train who finished reading her hometown paper and put it aside. Sitting on the seat beside her was a businessman who was reading the Chicago Tribune. When he finished reading his paper, he turned to her.

            “Would you like to read the Chicago Tribune?” he asked.

            “No, thank you,” she replied, “I don’t know anyone there.”

            The only reason larger papers don’t carry more personals is they simple don’t have room for them. It’s an important truism – names make news. The people in your firm particularly as they relate to your company, the community, and your industry are news.

            News about your company’s products or services may be secondary. But it’s just as important – especially and particularly if the product or service will influence the lives, careers or enjoyment of life of others…the publication’s readers.

            For purposes of clarity and continuity, it’s best for one person in your organization to be put in charge of public relations. The more important he is in the firm’s chain of command, the better. If he is not a company officer who can speak with authority, he should have access to top company executives at all times.

            By the same token, to save him embarrassment and to make his work plausible, no comment should be made to the press without his knowledge. Thus editors soon learn that he is the one to reach when they want to check for information or to develop a story.

            The best way to convey information or news, it you please, to a publication is by a simple news release. It should be typewritten on regular typewriter paper. In the upper corner type the name, address and telephone number of the company and the name of whom to contact…usually your press relations officer.

            Two spaces below type the release date. If the item is for immediate release, type “For immediate release”. If it’s for a release date in the future, type the date when the information may be published. News people will honor your release date, because they know that to violate your confidence just once will mean they will not enjoy it in the future.

            Here again, if an editor contacts you and asks you about a rumor he’s heard, level with him. Tell him what you know, but ask him to respect you confidence, and assure him that when the item is ready for publication, he well be one of the first to know.

            Be sure to leave at least a half-page blank at the top of the first page so the editor can write in his own headline. It’s perfectly permissible for you to furnish a headline ─ probably desirable because it will tell at a glance what the story is about. But pay him the compliment of leaving space to write his own headline if he so chooses.

            Keep your news story simple.  Who, what, where, when, why and/or how, the standard news lead paragraph is the best way to convey it. Let subsequent paragraphs develop and enlarge the news.

            And keep it short. Tell your story and quit. Remember it is the short news items which get the most readership because people are basically lazy readers.

            If possible let a photo accompany your news release… of the person or the product as the case may be. Make it the best picture you can afford. It is the Chinese who told us that one picture is worth a thousand words, so you want that picture to be the best possible.

            By all means, use a four-color picture if possible. Many publications today have four-color available. It means better readership for both their paper and your photo. If the paper doesn’t have four-color available, they can still print your four-color photo in black and white.

            It is not necessary to have a press conference in order to launch a news story. Fine food and liquor may be hospitable, but don’t expect them to be persuasive. An editor is much more interested in readership than food and drink because his future depends on the former.

            If he does attend your press meeting, it’s probable for the purpose of getting a private and exclusive interview with one of the top figures in your company. He’s looking for something no other publication has. Why? Because the biggest complaint his circulation department hears when trying to sell subscriptions is, “You have the same news all the other papers have and I don’t have time to read the papers I already get.”

            If the editor or reporter as the case may be does get an exclusive on a story it’s called a “scoop” in the publishing industry. To help a paper or editor get one will do more to cement good relations with him than anything else you can do… although it will probably infuriate his competitors. So, it you’re going to hand out exclusives, be sure to hand them out all around.

            One way to handle this is to query an editor if he would be interested in a story on a specific subject. If he turns it down, you have the perfect excuse if it runs in his competitor’s publication. And he’ll think twice the next time.

            Don’t overlook the free-lance writer or “stringer”. You’d be surprised at how much of a publication’s content is furnished by these people. They have contacts and they do all of the above querying and writing for you.

            Be honest and be helpful. Nobody likes bad news. But when it happens, it is news. When it involves your company, tell your story as clearly and completely as you can. Invite the editor in and give him all the aid you possibly can. Get it over with as soon as possible.

            It a publication should err in the publication of an item about our company, call it to the attention of the editor, but do it nicely.

            No one is perfect, and you can be sure that he didn’t do it intentionally and that he feel as bad or worse about it than you do. Mentioning it to him should insure that it doesn’t happen again in the future.

            Above all, don’t demand he print a correction or retraction. It may salve your conscience and satisfy your need for revenge, but it will embarrass him and call further attention to something that’s not right. Unless it is of earth-shattering importance, drop it.

            Finally, if the editor prints a story for you, phone him and thank him. It will assure him that you appreciate his efforts and make him more receptive to your new releases in the future.

            If he’s done you an outstanding favor, try to send him a memento of some kind. To take him to lunch is to get better acquainted. And if you can give him something to show your appreciation, he’ll appreciate it. If you deal in merchandise he’d like to own, give him a small item, or a special discount on a large item.

            But don’t try to bribe him. Publication people are skilled, hard-working, proud and honorable people. Their responsibility and loyalty are to their own organization and their readers. Moreover, they can smell something phony a mile away. You may make a fool of them once, but don’t try it a second time.

            Public relations is an essential part of the operation of any organization. The best way to work it to your advantage is to furnish any news about your organization, its people or its products or services – to the press. If you do and it’s legitimate and of sufficient importance, chances are you’ll get it published or broadcast.