PRESS RELEASE STATIONERY

You’ll need specially printed stationery on which to print your releases. The design is important, because it’s the stationery that makes the first impression on an editor as he picks up a release off the pile on his desk. A couple of pointers:

• Don’t use your letterhead stationery, the stuff you use for correspondence. Impress editors that you are taking press relations seriously, and produce something special for the job. It should be in line with your general corporate image and quite simple, with maybe your name and logo top left and wording such as ‘Press Release’, ‘News Release’ or ‘Media Information’ to the right, and your address in small type across the bottom of the page. Variations on this are OK, but do keep it simple and low-key.
• Use bog-standard A4 80gsm white copier paper, printed preferably in not more than two colours, and certainly no fancy gizmos like thermofaxing or embossing. To an editor, releases printed on heavyweight tinted bond paper with four-colour embossed printing say ‘small company trying to look big’. Press releases from one of the world’s biggest companies go out on ordinary photocopier-type 80gsm white copy paper, with the IBM logo and ‘News Release’ printed in blue.