1. BY SABELO DLAMINI

2.  A press release is a summary of facts about a programme or issue on which you want media attention.

3.  The main criterion for a press release is that it must contain news.  Similar to a straight news article, a press release is written in an inverted pyramid style.  The first paragraph is the lead and contains the most important information, subsequent paragraphs expand on that information and give more detail in decreasing order of importance.

4.  Like a good news story, a press release answers who, what, when, where, why and how.