Today, we got a nicely written news release about an upcoming event, and it was labeled as a media advisory.

No big deal, right? Of course not. But it can lead to a small bit of confusion on the receiving end.

Information pours into a newsroom or any business in a variety of ways – some clear, others a bit blurry.

A recipient of such an advisory might ask – do they want us to tell folks all about it now, or just show up to cover the event itself? (Both, most likely. In a perfect world;-)

Some advisories/alerts are told in obvious, bullet point who-when-where fashion, on down to who will be available to interview, what visuals will be there, etc. Info that really helps on a planning calendar, when deciding what to cover and how.

There’s no such thing as a perfect approach. Some entities helpfully combine both – put the not-for-public media advisory details at the bottom of a news release that’s “for immediate release.”

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