Newsworthiness means that information promises to be of interest to readers and is worth publishing. These standards should always be used by the PR specialist to test all news releases, pictures and all press events organized. The questions to ask are: is this story worth printing, will this picture improve the page, why should journalists waste their time to attend this press party? The PR practitioner must be his or her own judge of news-worthiness.
A news release creates an image of the organisation in the eyes of the editors. However, all over the world, nothing is done worse in PR than the writing of news releases. Editors everywhere are very disappointed by the quality of the releases they receive. This can be harmful to press relations as well as forming a bad impression of the sender's organisation. This is a pity because it is not difficult to write releases that earn the praise of the editors.
A good news release should tell the story as the journalist would have written it. It should not begin with 'We are proud to announce' nor contain self-praise. A news release must not read like an advertisement. The easiest way to learn how to write a news release is to read a newspaper. Very few of the releases received by editors resemble the reports printed in the media.