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Use The Associated Press (AP) Style

When writing news releases, it's best to use the style that the news media use. Most journalists use the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook. You should have a copy of this book by your desk. It contains definitions and references on the correct usage of words, as well as punctuation, abbreviations, and capitalization.

It's very important to write news releases correctly. I cannot emphasize this enough. Since you are writing news releases for professional journalists, they will see if you know what you're doing after a three-second scan of your release. If you use quotation marks or capitalization incorrectly, you lose some of your credbility immediately regardless of the newsworthiness of your release.

I highly recommend that you purchase a copy of this book at Amazon.com and use it regularly. Your news media contacts will appreciate it and you will get better results with the media because your releases will be correct according to the AP style!

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