Press Release Analysis

press release

Press Release URL: http://spweb-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/2014/11/sp-ebola-airlift-110314.pdf

Samaritan’s Purse International Relief released a press release about the Ebola crisis in Africa. The headline was an attention-getter because the Ebola crisis is an extremely newsworthy topic, and it introduces the fact that an actual Ebola survivor is helping with the efforts.  The lead of the news release is just as engaging. It reads as a news story because it provides details about the Ebola crisis at the beginning of the release. The organization does not even mention itself until the third sentence.

The release provides no exaggeration, simply facts. An added bonus of this particular release is that it provides a listed summary of the essential information making it easy to include this information in another story. The release provides no jargon. It is easy to understand and concise.

Written in correct AP style, the release even goes as far to use the journalistic ending of -30- to signify that the release is complete. There are no quotes in the release, which takes away a significant aspect of a new story. The story itself is also a little too short. A little more information about the organization’s previous involvement and perhaps some information about the Ebola survivor who the story features could have been provided.

The release is newsworthy. Ebola is a key topic today; specifically efforts in the West African countries that are affected are topic of concern to the media. Conflict, prominence and impact are all present within the story.

There are various typos throughout the internet version of the press release, but these seem to have been corrected in the downloadable version, which is the version that I am basing this assessment off.

It does not contain “for immediate release” but it does include a date and bolded writing that I would assume is the release date. It includes boilerplate information about the organization and includes other information about the efforts in Liberia. It also includes detailed contact information.

I believe that a news organization would include the information provided. Perhaps a Christian news organization would even turn this into a story. The information provided opens the organization to news media for a more detailed story and interviews.