4.1: Introduction to Public Affairs Writing

There’s a reason why we began this course with a solid discussion and practice of basic newswriting techniques: They are the fundamental skills in public relations writing. Public relations is also known as public affairs and strategic communications, depending upon the client.

When a p.r. practitioner puts out a press release, it is typically done in the inverted pyramid style. Check out these news releases:

PGCC SGA and CAB Donate Arts and Crafts to Children's Hospital

Major League Soccer announces 2023 season schedule

Defense Department Increases Child Care Fees to Maintain Quality Child Care for Military Families

Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

About 1 in 100 Heart Disease Deaths Linked to Extreme Hot and Cold Weather Days

Getting a story in the newspaper or on television is called “earned media,” meaning that the story got into the paper on or the air on its own merits and the space to publish the story was not paid for or owned by the client.

Getting your story into earned media – your local newspaper or on your local television station, for instance – is considered far better that buying space or airtime because it puts the “endorsement” of the publication or station behind your message.

Why? What’s the difference between public relations and journalism? Let’s start by seeing how they are similar:

--They communicate with the public

--They build trust with their audiences. Journalists build credibility and trust with the public by reporting and publishing fair and accurate content. PR professionals seek to build trust to inform and persuade target audiences to support and organization or a product.

-- They both provide information in an easily understandable way.

-- They tell stories.

But there are significant differences:

--News organizations serve one master, the public. By extension, the employees of that organization, the reporters and editors, also serve one master, the public.

--PR professionals are paid to work for a client or their employer. By extension, they serve the interests of the organization, not the public.

--PR professionals target specific audiences to build support for a product, a brand or an idea. Journalists have an acquired audience, and what they are publishing (the news is of interest to the public broadly).

-- Journalists have the freedom to tell the stories they want. PR professionals, on the other hand, must tell stories that advance the interests of their clients.

-- Journalists have an ethical obligation to be objective, while PR is subjective because it is persuading the audience to support a client’s brand of product.

PR professionals seek to get their message in earned media, because it is believed that doing so puts the imprimatur of the media behind the message. But PR professionals also may seek to get their message out by buying space or airtime to insert an “advertorial” into the media. It may in fact have information and perhaps legitimate news value, but it was not produced by the independent journalists of the publication.

It looks like a magazine or newspaper article.

It reads like a magazine or newspaper article.

But it’s not a magazine or newspaper article.

Sometimes called “native advertising,” they are meant to be just a bit sneaky. While they are primarily found in print publications, you can also find them on websites. Here are some sample advertorials:

https://myfavoritemarketer.com/sample-advertorials/

Or they might produce features that appear both on their website and in a quarterly magazine mailed to people in their marketing region. Take a look at this example from Adventist Health Care:

Cardiac Rehabilitation Helped Shire McNamara Focus on Recovery

Notice how it tells a story, based on a real person. While the business objective is to increase utilization of Adventist HealthCare’s hospital and cardiac rehabilitation program, it provides practical, usable information about the symptoms of a heart attack, information about the benefits of cardiac rehab and about results. Nowhere in the article is an explicit call to action.

This is the sort of story that would never be published in a local newspaper – it doesn’t have a “today” angle, for one thing, nor is it illustrative of a trend – but it is vital information for people who may have a heart attack or may be present when someone has a heart attack.

It’s the sort of thing PR professionals can do with owned media.