Parabolic News Release

You’ve just been hired by Parabolic Communications as an assistant account executive. Parabolic is a strategic communications consulting agency that works with a wide range of clients in the government, nonprofit, and corporate economic sectors. The company is excited to have you on board. Your manager, account executive Gavin Hanson, knows you’re obtaining a master’s degree in the field and has been looking to hire someone with a passion for professional development. HR has given you a welcome packet that includes a video introduction to the agency as well as some orientation materials, including your new business card and the org chart of your first project. Click through the packet to review the contents. Gavin has just given you your first assignment: You’ll be working with the Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) to write a news release and revise the client’s media kit so that it is in line with the release. Gavin sends you a client brief to help you understand the requirements. As this is your first assignment at Parabolic, he’ll be coaching you along the way. This project is important for many reasons. First, strategic communications professionals must excel at writing. No matter what trends take over on social media or in other disciplines, communications professionals must exhibit stellar written communication skills. Working on the CPRE initiative will make you mindful of the standards you’re expected to uphold. Second, this is a great opportunity for you to polish your own professional writing. You’re going to shape and revise the three deliverables so that they’re clear, succinct, in AP style, and likely to appeal to the news media.
You want reporters to “run with your story”; however, you are not drafting an argument or appeal. The purpose of your news release is to inform reporters about the state of writing in the United States. To that end, you should present facts so that they are clear and easily understandable. You should not be editorializing, making an argument, or issuing a call to action.CPRE Strategy Client Brief
Click here to read the brief.
Welcome to the CPRE team! Here’s some information to get you started.

Tasks:
Write a news release (around 400 words).
Review, revise, and edit a backgrounder for the CPRE media kit (3–4 pages).

Client: Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE)*

Briefing: Our client is concerned about the state of writing in the communications field (and in the general US population) and wants to re-release the results of a 2009 study. CPRE wants us to (1) prepare a news release on the results of the study, and (2) revise the associated media kit to make its contents engaging and relevant; although 2009 may seem like yesterday to some of us, a new study will provide important data on changes in writing competencies over time.

The media kit contains a backgrounder that complements and contextualizes the news release for members of the press. After writing the release, you’ll edit and update the existing backgrounder using information from the study. You’ll need to provide context for the re-release of the study. You will also write a fact sheet on CPRE to accompany the news release. CPRE will publish all three documents to its website so they are available to the news media. Please see the uploaded files for more information and please see the uploaded files for the steps of the paper.