Key Principles 3: Subject matter must be ‘newsworthy’
Information in a press release should be newsworthy to the audience. For business press releases the business relevance of the information should be clearly stated. For consumer press there should be a genuine public interest in the information.
Consider the following statements and match them to the audience for which they would be considered newsworthy:
Statement 1
AstraZeneca today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation (BTD) for the oral poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor Lynparza™ (olaparib), for the monotherapy treatment of BRCA1/2 or ATM gene mutated metastatic Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC) in patients who have received a prior taxane-based chemotherapy and at least one newer hormonal agent (abiraterone or enzalutamide).
- Check answer
- Not consumer because it is about regulatory process rather then availability of the product
Statement 2
AstraZeneca today announced that it has entered into an agreement to invest in a majority equity stake in Acerta Pharma, a privately-owned biopharmaceutical company based in the Netherlands and US. The transaction provides AstraZeneca with a potential best-in-class irreversible oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, acalabrutinib (ACP-196), currently in Phase III development for B-cell blood cancers and in Phase I/II clinical trials in multiple solid tumours.
Statement 3
AstraZeneca today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved TAGRISSO™ (AZD9291) 80mg once-daily tablets for the treatment of patients with metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) T790M mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as detected by an FDA-approved test, who have progressed on or after EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy.
- Check answer
- Consumer is considered to be of interest to the public as there is no other approved treatment for such patients
Now proceed to the key topics menu to apply these basic principles to some specific types of media materials and activities.