Week FOUR, Clean it Up

The NewsU courses are kicking my butt!

Ok, I feel so much better now that I got that out there and off my chest.

Initially, I wanted to ust my 3-pronged approach to say the following:

1. I learned that- I DO NOT know as much as I thought I knew about this.

2. I was surprised that -I DO NOT know as much as I thought I knew about this.

3. I would like to learn- All that stuff that I thought I knew.

However, I have decided to push past my depression and dig a little deeper into my new knowledge.

I know your excited.

1. In this course I learned a lot more about punctuation. I am an editor, and this is why I was so surprised how much I don't know. I learned to rely on AP Style a lot more than I already do.

AP Style and I are officially on BFF status!

2. What surprised me was how easy it became to navigate an AP "flow"- not as hard as it seems.

3. I would like to become more comfy using those things. you know, to just be able to KNOW more of those rules and be able to "phase out" my deep relationship with my AP Styleguide.

I actually really like the interactvie format of the News U courses- time flies when your having fun- and these courses go fast!

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NewsU sounds cool, right? It is. Check it out.

I asked God to show me his heart... He showed me His hurt.

The horrors of poverty tear into the core of who I am.

However- I love the howevers..
Those tears are being wiped away, right off of their cheeks and hearts are smiling again-

with the help of one local Floridian, Danita Estrella, and her Orlando based ministry- Danita’s Children.

So the story goes a little something like this:
In 1998 Danita visited Haiti for the first time on a short trip to Dominican Republic as a language interpreter. When the trip was over she went across the border into Haiti. Within a year of her return home, she moved there, with nothing but a yearning in her heart and the imaged embedded into her spirit of the young children digging through trash cans for food. She rented a small house and eventually brought 14 children to come live with her there. Now, 10 years later, Danita has established 3 Orphan homes, school for over 600 Haitian children, a church, a feeding program, and a medical clinic for the community. Currently Danita is in the process of planning a new orphanage for the children that she rescued from ground zero of the earthquake in Port-Au-Prince.

Danita speaks about the early days of her initial move to Haiti on her website:
“I spent the days volunteering at different schools and churches in the area, and at night I would sit quietly before the Lord. There was no electricity in the village, so I would read my Bible by candlelight. There were times I felt so desperately alone; yet God’s presence was always real. He had given me a promise: ‘Go, and I will be with you’.”

The work of Danita’s Children is made possible by a limited staff in the US offices in Orlando, Florida, in the field in Haiti, a team of seven full-time missionaries, some mid-term and short-term missionaries, and a 55-member staff comprised of Haitians, Dominicans, and other nationals.

However- o yes, another however-
Danita is always looking for those with a willing heart and the desire to use their skills and gifts for the kingdom of God.

$29 a month gives one of Danita’s Children:
clothes
3 meals a day
shelter
an education

...every spiritual, educational, and physical need met.. for only $29 a month. Go ahead, be the answer to their prayer.

Luke 10:2- “..The harvest is great, but the workers are few..”


There is an entire list of needs that Danita is praying for her children, from blankets and towels, to generators and missionary staff, read the list.

Most of all, pray.

Pray for Mamma Danita’s children.
Pray for their safety and the safety, discernment, and wisdom of Danita’s staff.

If you dont, who will?!

Read more of Danita’s Children’s stories and find out how you can help at:
http://www.danitaschildren.org/

Be The Answer.

Who's Who

Chapter 6 Notes

Publicity tool kit. Basically the Who’s Who of getting info out there. Consists of these things:

Fact Sheet

Media Advisory

Media Kit

These things help companies capture the attention of the media and persuade them to expose the company’s product, event, etc., to the public.

Here’s the run down.

The [Fact Sheet]

It is what it is- a list of facts that provide a quick overview of the company.

A corporate fact sheet, or corporate profile, provides facts about an organization and should include:

organization’s name

products or services produced

organization’s annual revenues

total number of employees

names of top executives

markets served

position in the industry

other pertinent details

the [Media Advisory]

Media advisories serve to alert the media of upcoming event that they wish to gain media coverage. These are usually a short, bulleted items, detailing the time, date, location, etc. and are sent out a couple of weeks prior to an event.

the [Media Kit]

Another way to grab an editors attention is a media kit, also referred to as a press kit. A media kit provides the this- and- that about an event or product launch. Get creative when making a media kit, but the basic media kits include the following:

main news release

news features

fact sheet

background information

photos or drawings with captions

biographical materials on the senior executive, etc.

basic brochures

Some media kits may even include samples of the product and similar freebies in order for the editor to become familiar with the product and develop his or her own opinion about it.

** Which is a brilliant idea, make a believer out of them and you're golden!**

A typical media kit comes in a 9 by 12 inch folder but some companies prefer to make a package or something that catches an editor’s eye. Electronic Media kits are also popular and usually come in a compact disk.

Get as creative or simple as you feel fits the company:

All these notes are from Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques by Dennis L. Wilcox.

Making the Team

Chapter 5 Notes (for those of you keeping up)

Ok, so remember when you were little and trying to get picked to play on the team? Well, press releases are kind of like that. There are all the kids- the chubby kid, the kid who is real excited but not much else, the one picking his nose, the little girl who is willing to go head-to-head with the boys and it’s just reality that some make it on the team and some get sent packing.

The same goes for the press release- an editor gets stacks and stacks of releases daily- the one with all the misspelled words, the one with no title or heading, the one with no contact information and even the good one- describing a fabulous up-coming event- that just doesn’t do anything to stand out and gets stuck in between all the other average joes- in the trash. By the end of the day, the editor has to pick the team, which make it and which do not.

O, the life of a press release.

A news release, aka a press release, is a way for companies or organizations to get news of an event, product, idea, etc. to the media, in hopes of being published for public exposure.

Editors receive daily releases, usually too many to keep up with, not only through the traditional mail, but also by email and fax, which makes it extremely important to know the logistics of a press release so that it stands out from every other release and doesn’t just get mixed up in the stack of all the other hundreds of unused releases.

Now let’s make that News Release an All-Star:

(this is just the basics)

• Follow an outline and stick to it.
• Provide all the “W’s” (we will talk about them in a moment) needed in the one release- one page only!
• Be timely- not too early, not too late.
• All the most important info should be put into the first paragraph, and then detailed in the paragraphs following.

So, the 5 W’s- Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?- The Questions That a News Release Should Answer:

Who is sponsoring the event, creating the project, etc…

Who is is the target audience?

What is the purpose of the organization/event?

When will this take place?

Where is this happening?

How will readers benefit from this information?

Why is this event or the like being created?

The Traditional News Release (aka, that outline we talked about):

side note: Check to see if the editor of the outlet you are writing to has any specific guidelines for their releases.

If so, follow those.

If not, follow these.

Use 8.5 by 11 inch multi-purpose paper- avoid colored paper. I know you think it’s “fun” but let’s keep it professional folks. Your content should make the release original, not the paper.

There should be a two inch margin at the top of the page and 1.5 inch margins on the bottom, right and left.

10 or 12 pt font is preferred and legible fonts such as Courier and Times New Roman are ideal.

Use AP Style.

To indicate that the release is longer than one page, place the word -MORE- at the bottom of the page, BUT try to avoid more than one page. It comes across as too inconvenient for the editor- who has little time- to look at it.

To indicate that the release has ended place the word -END- or place a line of pound signs at the bottom -###-.

A Few Basic Types of New Releases

1. Announcements- new stuff- products, promotions, sales reports, anniversaries and such.

2. Spot Announcements- informs public of a happening that affected the organization.

3. Bad News- can be buried in a news story so readers do not consider it to be a “cover up” for a mistake. It is best to confront an issue immediately in order to prevent the media from making up stories or being informed of rumors. The worst thing that a PR representative can do is to refuse to comment on a situation- unless they are trying to be torn to shreds by media “assumptions”.

Basically, if you’re not sure what to include, I have three words for you-

LOOK.

IT.

UP!

There are plenty of resources, like Web Wire that will help Press Releases become an essential part of advertisement for your organization and is a lot cheaper than buying an ad slot.

All these notes are from Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques by Dennis L. Wilcox.