PR Writing: Chapter 8

Fact sheets: Brief documents that explain a business, product, issue or event through Q&A, narratives, and lists. Some types of information provided in a fact sheet include the purpose of the business, services, influence, community involvement, corporate structure, etc. Reporters can find interesting information in the factsheet that can lead to stories and features, creating publicity or the company/product.

Matte Release: A matte release is more of a feature than a release, though the name would indicate otherwise. These articles are already finished and written, intended to be used “as is”, as they are promoting a product or service. They are typically used to fill space in a publication and can be costly, running up to thousands of dollars.  They are also usually better for local and regional campaigns instead of national.

Backgrounders: These are obviously important to know about because we have done an assignment on them! Backgrounders are a lot like fact sheets, but are typically longer and more detailed. They can also use Q&A format and since they are written to be nearly timeless with a long shelf life, they are written with time-neutral wording to maintain relevancy.

This chapter in the book made me realize that public relations has a lot to do not only with maintaining and growing reputations and dealing with crisis, but also in taking something as simple as the mission of a business and turning it into full backgrounds and fact sheets that can be used in many situations. Most applicable to my current writing was the information on backgrounders as that is what we are working on right now in the class. This chapter is applicable to my future professional life because I feel that sports PR is absolutely dependent on backgrounds and factsheets of other sports teams and individual athletes in order to make the most logical decisions on behalf of the organization.