Verizon Wireless: Press Release to an Article

I chose to look at press releases from Verizon Wireless. Verizon is my service provider for my cell phone and I am looking at whether or not I want to stay with them after my contract expires in May. The press release I found announced that Verizon would be opening their network and allowing people to use phones and software that is not from the Verizon company. To view the full press release click here

I then began searching for news articles written from the press release. Through my search I found two articles. One from the Washington Post and the other was from the New York Times. Both articles seemed to follow the press release pretty closely. The article from the Washington Post talked about both the potential positive and potential negative of Verizon making the switch. They had quotes from people from both sides. The reporter seemed to keep the article pretty neutral and it was unclear what side the reporter was on. That shows a good reporter and they did very well of putting together the information. They used the information from the press release and also had further interviews with both people from Verizon and from other companies. To read the article click here

The article from the New York Times was a lot like the Washington Post article. It equally presented both the good and the bad of the announcement by Verizon. There were many quotes used and none of them came from the press release so other interviews were scheduled as well. You can tell these reporters are good because you can't tell what side they agree with. The facts were presented for both sides and it was done pretty equally. Because of this I would say this article is neutral as well. Check out the whole article here

I began the project actually looking at a few different press releases from different companies. I had found a few but none of them were really that interesting to me. There were articles written on them but I just did not feel they were really that news worthy. Then got the idea to look at Verizon’s website and see if they had announced anything new recently. I found the press release and it said in the text that this was a big step for the wireless companies. I thought it sounded pretty news worthy. I remembered Marshall, one of our guest lectures, said anything that is the first, the best or the biggest will make the news. Judging by the press release it seemed to be one of the first so I started looking for articles. The newsworthiness of the topic became even more apparent when I got a few different news articles written on the same press release. The press release seemed very relevant to the stories that were written. They did not twist the information to make a negative point; they addressed both sides but kept to the release for facts. The quotes in the press release were not actually quoted but seemed to be paraphrased throughout the articles. I thought the quotes in the release were very good and was surprised some were not used in the articles. I felt like some of the quotes in the actual articles were a waste of quote marks. I felt like the ones in the release were more relevant and were more substantial quotes. This just taught me how effective a press release can be. If you have a well-written release that contains news, reporters will jump on it and get a story out there.