While this is a viable alternative, it is not ideal; both are proprietary
formats, take longer to load, and do not lend themselves to fast consumption by
readers. Since the Web is the ideal medium, the template needs to be flexible in order to
handle the disparate word count.
Ninety-nine percent of press releases follow a preordained, fairly conservative format, so
most chunks of content can be anticipated. This format contains several components:
Headline: The headline serves double duty??”it needs to summarize the story and
grab the attention of readers. Some writers strive to write clever, pun-laden statements
(???California Water Turns on Productivity Tap with New Software???), but that is
certainly not necessary, and doesn??™t affect the design either way.
Dateline: The dateline is a small bit that tells the time and place. It??™s the lead right
before the body and is usually set in all capitals.
Introduction: The first paragraph of a press release is critical because it quickly
answers the who-what-where-when-how-why of the story. If a reader never gets
past these first couple sentences, they will still know what the press release is
about.
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