Content We Love: Using The News-cycle to Your Advantage

When breaking news happen, companies often put out press releases to comment on them. This allows them to voice their opinions, explain how it affects them, and invite the media to explore the topic more. Demonstrating this are three organizations that responded to a recently issued draft notice by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) on fish consumption.

Celebrating the FDA’s recommendations is the press release by the Pacific Seafood Processors Association (PSPA) titled “Pacific Seafood Processors Association Applauds New FDA Advice to Women: EAT MORE FISH!” With its gleeful headline and words like “applaud,” “thrilled,” and “excited” in the paragraphs, the association doesn’t hide its feelings, and demands that you have seafood tonight. To show how helpful they are, the story quotes PSPA’s president expressing his eagerness to work “with the FDA during the comment period to ensure the final document reflects FDA’s ultimate goal: increasing the amount of seafood pregnant women eat.”

Putting a more somber tone on the FDA notice is the National Fisheries Institute with their press release, “FDA Issues Draft Advice Encouraging Women to Eat More Fish During Pregnancy.” Like a story straight out of a broadsheet, the release opens with a direct, easy-to-understand headline before presenting the key issues in the first paragraph. A couple of facts are highlighted as bullet points, and a quote from an expert in the field lends an authoritative air. And while the institute is listed as the source, their name only peeks out in the sub-headline and second-to-last paragraph, rather than front and center like most organizations’ press releases.

Taking a different stance from both the PSPA and the National Fisheries Institute is the Mercury Policy Project‘s press release, “FDA Fails to Warn Pregnant Women Adequately About Mercury Risks From Tuna, says Consumer Group.” Expressing that it was “most disappointed with the agencies failure,” the project’s opinion is immediately apparent. As an advocate in reducing mercury exposure, the organization criticized the FDA’s recommendation to eat canned light tuna as “simply wrong,” and also referred to a lawsuit they recently filed against the government agency for failing to respond to their petition.

Responding to the same news, these three organizations present very separate views that show through their press releases. The celebratory mood of PSPA can be felt in their headline and words, as if they were wearing party hats and popping champagne while writing it. While the National Fisheries Institute shared PSPA’s viewpoint, they chose to appear as an authoritative figure through their tone and newsy style. The Mercury Policy Project, however, wags their finger at the FDA, warning readers not to take to the new advice so easily. By offering their opinions of the news, these institutions presents different dimensions to the day’s news, garners attention from the public and the news media, which in turn makes the organizations more visible, which is you want your press release to do.