Marketing and Communications Office Web site

Media Relations

Guidelines for grammar & style.
Guidelines for the University community

The communications office distributes media releases and announcements on behalf of the University to local media outlets. These include local, provincial, Maritime, and sometimes national and specialty print, broadcast, and television media. These announcements are also highlighted on the Mount Allison University home page in the “In the News” section. Hundreds of releases are sent out on an annual basis.

In order to maintain good media relations for Mount Allison, this distribution must be strategic. This means that the public announcements should be timely, newsworthy, and complete.

To distribute these effectively, the communications office requires drafted media releases to be submitted no later than one to two weeks before the event or desired date of announcement. Please note, to meet the deadlines of weekly publications, releases must be sent out by the communications office no later than one week before the hopeful date of publication. This does not guarantee placement in the newspapers or on the radio or television. That is the decision of the editors and news directors of external outlets.

Press Release for Sackville's Film Festival.

Tips for writing media releases
prior to sending to the communications office

• Remember your audience and keep the release short and simple. Media releases should be a maximum of one page. The title should be one line only.

• The first paragraph should have all of the vital details. The five W’s (who, what, where, when, why) should all be answered. Journalists edit media releases from the bottom up, so make sure the most important information is in the first paragraph.

• If you have ONE photo from the event/announcement/guest speaker, it never hurts to send it. Photos should be in JPEG format. Remember to add a caption for the photo submission and credit the photographer.

• There should always be a contact that the media can call for additional information. Typically the majority of media calls are filtered through the communications office. If the event organizer or guest speaker is available for media interviews, please indicate this here.

• The communications office will edit for length, tone, and style for the sake of consistency and to improve the chances for publication. The communications office will, with enough lead time and your help, create releases for you.

The communications office at Mount Allison University uses the Canadian Press (CP) style guide and Strunk and White Elements of Style for reference. More information on the CP guide can be found at http://www.cp.org (Products and Services link). The communications office has summarized areas it feels are of most interest and importance to the University community in a PDF file below. Samples of Mount Allison media releases are available on the home page or as a PDF file below.

Mount Allison Style Guide (PDF)

Mount A sample media release (PDF)