A new pest has entered the media bloodstream. I call it the "Oops Release". More and more venues are sending corrections to their press releases in a follow-up email. What may seem like an innocent irritant, is becoming a damaging disease – messing up readers, frustrating editors, and putting PR agents and venues in the doghouse. (Read more)

It’s been decades since I taught journalism to my high school students. The media has changed, but the principles have not. We started out with the lowly press release because it was a great format for teaching kids to be clear, accurate, interresting and brief.

Now I get dozens of releases to my web site each week, and with them, countless corrections. A new generation of writers -- weaned on email, instant messaging and tweets -- is still not getting the memo. Here it is again – proofead your releases BEFORE you send them. Editors do not have the time or interest to fix your mistakes.

Here’s how it works. A nonprofit agency (they are the worst) or business emails a release to dozens of media with one click. This used to require lots of paper, collating, stamps, and a trip to the post office. Now it takes seconds to distribute bad writing to a host of very busy underpaid editors.

Next, the print media editors put the release in a queue to go up in a timely manner. Since this may take weeks, releases need to arrive early. The online media editors very likely posts the release right away. I’ve had releases online within 15-30 minutes of their arrival. In my case, that means editing the copy, sizing the photo, creating a new Web page on my site, and posting it into a content management system. This can take up to an hour, longer if there is no accompanying artwork.

I tend to pick releases that are well written, although those are few and far between. Editors look for relevant releases (in my case focused on local history and culture), ones with snappy titles, and especially those with great photographs or atwork.

I don’t want anything that arrives in a PDF file. The best way to submit a release is in the body of the email itself since most of us do not open emails with attachments unless we know who they are from. We don’t want formatted releases, especially those with color backgrounads, embedded pictures, multiple fonts in different sizes, etc. All that stuff has to be stripped away and is of no use on this end. The only thing that should be pretty is the attached JPG.

Then come the dreaded repairs. "Oops" the writer writes. "I sent you a release yesterday and I forgot to include the name of the woman who donated the iced tea to the refreshments that will be served after the lecture. Can you add that to my release?"

NO. Nor can we call the file back up and fix spelling errors, repair names, add sponsors. The record here, so far, is four correctoins to a single release in four follow-up emails. The most common mistake is forgetting the date of the event or neglecting to attach the promised attachment.

The ability to update Web sites has seduced press writers into thinking that repairing those errors is as easy as flagging them. It isn’t. It can take 10 minutes to half an hour to fix a mistake on a previously posted page – roughly the time required to post another new page from someone who did it right. The writer is not paying for this service or for the space filled with the original release. Print and broadcast media provide free space for releases. We make our money by selling ads that appear next to that space. That’s how the system works. Everybody wins unless the system gets clogged up with pesky repairs.

Sure there are exceptions. When Art Garfunkel calls to say he has a sore throat and must postpone his concert for six mnths – that is worth a repaired Web page. But nothing short of that carries water.

There is only one solution. Press release writers, both professional an amateur, must proofread their own copy before they send it to the media -- just like inthe olden days. I suggest reading the release aloud to yourself. That takes a few minutes, but it works like a charm. If you can’t understand your own message, it needs a new draft. Then hand it to the person next to you and have her read it aloud too. Same rules apply.

This simple two-step process – plus spell- checking – will eliminate almost all "Oops Releases". And it will lead to better releases – ones without paragraph-long sentences, dull lists, crummy grammar, silly quotations, sickening syntax, etc. If your friend can’t read your release out loud easily in one take – it should not go out.

On this end, all we editors can employ is a system of pest removal. I delete all requests for edits, except those at the Art Garfunkel level. It doesn’t solve the problem; the pests keep coming. But this way they don’t eat up my life.

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