NEWS RELEASES AND HOUSE JOURNALS: a lecture by Dr.Josef Bel-Molokwu

News releases and house journals are vital marketing applications that are useful in selling a sustainable positive image of a company and its output to both the public and media. The responsibility for doing this lies with the Corporate Affairs unit of each organization, or whatever other name they are called, and must be driven by staff in different capacities to the friends of the house and other personnel who are favorably disposed to the organization.

Press releases go out in the form of  emails, through corporate websites, social media platforms, and blogs. With the emergence of the new media, the bulk of the information that goes out is disseminated through this medium, but it does not eradicate the usage of the conventional media, and an editor still oversees the content to ensure high quality, conciseness, formatting, reader-friendliness and authentication. However, regardless of the medium, good formatting is an imperative. The features of the release must include the date, title, body of the letter, name, signature and designation of the person issuing the release. From the moment a press release is sent out, the process must be well managed to ensure that the writing is in the interest of your organization, good liaisons are maintained with editors and friends of the house, rules of embargo are observed, the release is well distributed, received and read.

The House journal goes by different names e.g. corporate bulletin, corporate or in-house journal, corporate newsletter, and house magazine. This publication serves as an eye into your organization hence its contents must be as diverse as it is enriching. Everybody’s interest should be catered for, and sycophancy reduced to the barest. It is however worthy of note that the approach to House Journals might change with the creation of the editorial, marketing, promotional, and other corporate literature. It is left for the organization to work out how it intends to distribute this journal, determine if its orientation should be commercial, include adverts or displayed in the competition’s terrain.