My First Media Release

We have all learnt and hopefully mastered by now the art of writing a good media release however when I was approached to produce one I was shocked to find myself really not confident and struggling to start.
I am working for the National Disability Services WA and more specifically The Companion Card Program. I have been working with a lot of local government agencies however the Community Development Officer for the Katanning Council asked if I could send him a media release after they affiliated with the program. I -of course- agreed and was also very excited about the fact that I could actually have my work published. Generally I could write fairly easily about the case studies or the scenarios that we were given in previous PR classes however I found myself fumbling and staring at a computer screen dumbfounded. It took a while for me to get into it and even then I was still very nervous about my boss reading over it. I think it is ultimately a confidence issue and practise will make perfect I'm sure.
I did manage to finish the media release and cleverly put a 'country spin' on the story. I made the media release suit the Shire of Katanning and made it relevant to them however it did take a deplorable amount of time to finish. The story does have a happy ending as my boss liked it and said I had a few gramatical errors but really like the focus I had put into it.
I am still waiting for a reply from the Community Development Officer and I have asked him to send a copy of the publication to the office for us to keep on file.
In hindsight it is good idea to have a media release on file and I think writing a few with some different focuses would be benefitial to the company. There were no media releases on file at the office and only a mission statement on the website. A few different media releases on file is always good as a starting point or template. I would never use the same one and simply regurgitate it and change a few names but I do really think it would be beneficial for them. It would also allow me to gain some more practise and in the long run make everyone's day a little easier.