Use when an activity or incident is newsworthy and a statement won’t suffice

• Timeliness
• Proximity
• Conflict
• Impact
• Prominence
• Uniqueness
• Human interest

A news release is appropriate when there is a factual report of an activity or incident of news value.

An incident is newsworthy based on:

• Timeliness: Self-explanatory. News is NOW.
• Proximity: Events that happen near us have more significance and are more newsworthy to us.
• Conflict: Controversy or struggle between opposing sides makes news. (NOTE: The struggle doesn’t have to be between people; it can be between people and the elements.)
• Impact: How will this affect me and to what degree?
• Prominence: Who is involved? The more “known” they are affects newsworthiness.
• Uniqueness: “Different” can be news.
• Human interest: Human interest stories can be of interest even if they don’t exemplify some of these other characteristics of newsworthiness. Human interest stories appeal to emotion and enable the audience to identify with the subject.