News Release Story Proposal
News Release Story Proposal
Overall Guidelines:
- In order to reduce stress and make the workload reasonable, you areallowedto use some hypothetical information in your news release.
- The organization must be real and local. You can design a hypothetical event, but it should be highly relevant to the local organization of your choice. Conduct some active research to see the organization’s past events and/or upcoming events.
- It is NOT acceptable to do a rewrite of an existing press release. It will be considered plagiarism. You need to start from scratch and put everything together by yourself.
- Student organizations will not be considered for this writing project.
- If you have an organization that gives you the permission to write a real upcoming event for submission to the local media outlets, that will make your portfolio look more professional. It is not required, but if you have the opportunity, don’t miss it.
- Unless you are authorized by a local company/organization to cover a real event on its behalf, you are expected to write a pre-event release. Your hypothetical event can take place at any point of time between January 4, 2021and July 4, 2021.
- Use the worksheet below to complete your proposal. Don’t remove anything from the worksheet. Type in the space at the bottom of each section.
| Sections of Story Proposal
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Points |
| 1. Introduce your story idea
1) What is the full name of the organization that you are writing the news release for? 2) What is the news release about? If it is about event, what is the event about? 3) A news release can be about an upcoming event (pre-event release) or an event that has just ended (post-event release). For this assignment, you are expected to write only a pre-event release unless you have a real event to cover that is close to the delaine. 4) Why do you think the topic is newsworthy? 5) What is the time of the event? 6) If you are not writing about an event. Specify what your press release is about.
Notes: Please write your story idea introduction in a paragraph. Avoid using a question-answer format.
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30 points |
| 2. Identify head of sponsoring organization
§ List the full name and contact information of at least one authoritative person at the sponsoring organization. § This should be the person that you can attribute the direct quotes to in the news release. § In theory, you need to conduct an interview with this person to get the quotes. § It is not acceptable to get the quotes from a secondary source (e.g. quotes other people obtained through theinterview they had conducted).
Notes: You don’t need to personally know this person, but you need to provide his/her full name and professional title. You won’t be required to conduct the interview for this assignment.
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10 points |
| 3. Create a tentative title
§ Write down a tentative title for your press release. § The title should be complete with all the required components. § The title should clearly describe what the news release is about.
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10 points |
| 4. Generate sample interview questions
§ Write down at least five sample questions for your interview. § All of the questions should be open-ended questions.
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20 points |
| 5. Compose introduction to the sponsoring organization
§ In no less than 150 words provide the background information of the sponsoring organization. This section must be well researched and fact-based. It is not acceptable to provide a random paragraph with information from the top of your head.
§ If the sponsoring organization is a chain store, the introduction should focus on the local chain.
§ Don’t confuse a sponsoring organization with a beneficiary. The sponsoring organization is the organizer and host of the event.
§ Your introduction should also provide the background of the event and introduction of the event and the role of the organization in the event.
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30 points |
| Total | 100 points |
