{{{edit-button 'writing_news.html' 'section'}}} {{#markdown}} ## News and press releases

Who are these guidelines for?

These are best practices for writing a news story, and can be used as a guide for writing short pieces for a general audience. This content was put together by the EMBL-EBI and EMBL Heidelberg news teams.

If you have a news story or would like help with writing a news-style piece for your web page or a blog post, please get in touch by emailing the news team, or a group of your writing colleagues in Hinxton, who are signed up to writers@ebi.ac.uk. If you would like to join this group, contact Mary in External Relations.

For a nit-picky list of EMBL style points, see Writing: EMBL style guide.

Press releases

A press release is written to excite the interest of journalists, and is one of (hopefully) many inputs into a news article. It should be brief and exciting. The journalist will expect it to have a bias towards the scientist/institute, so it does not have to be exhustive.

The one thing all news stories have in common is that they are new: if you have an idea for a story, let the news team know as soon as possible! Here is what he or she will want to know:

EMBL press releases have two potential audiences:

Here are some examples of the kind of stories we write press releases about:

We do not generally issue press releases about:

When do we release the story?

The planned date and time of release should be established as soon as possible after a go-ahead decision has been made. The following should be taken into account:

Approval procedure

Once everyone involved in drafting a release is happy with it, it needs to be approved by:

Distribution

Writing style

Questions to ask as you write

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