They get twice as much attention, per Eyetrack III:

Shorter paragraphs performed better in Eyetrack III research than longer ones. Our data revealed that stories with short paragraphs received twice as many overall eye fixations as those with longer paragraphs. The longer paragraph format seems to discourage viewing.

There's nothing more scarce than attention. Use it wisely.

The ever-informative Eyetrack III studies have this to say about headlines and text on Web sites:

With a list of headlines on a homepage, we can see where people looked with eyetracking—and again, most often it's the left sides of the headlines. People typically scan down a list of headlines, and often don't view entire headlines. If the first words engage them, they seem likely to read on. On average, a headline has less than a second of a site visitor's attention.

For headlines—especially longer ones—it would appear that the first couple of words need to be real attention-grabbers if you want to capture eyes.

The same goes for blurbs—perhaps even more so. Our findings about blurbs suggest that not only should they be kept short, but the first couple of words need to grab the viewer's attention.

Public relations writing too often assumes the sole audience is the client and tries to jam too many ego-stroking elements into headlines and lead paragraphs.

Paul Conley's advice is addressed to reporters and editors, but it applies equally well to public relations professionals:

If you're a reporter or editor who bemoans the loss of the past and resents the future, here's what you need to know:

—your publication can't survive in print alone, and nor can you.

—your publication is becoming a multimedia operation, and you best become a multimedia operator.

—you can not transplant much of what you believe is good about your work in print (story structure, writing style, story length) to an online environment. Having worked in print does not make you an expert in online.

—the people you work with and for are growing less patient with you, your lack of new media skills, your glamorized vision of print, your lack of enthusiasm for new products and new storytelling techniques, your stubborn personality and your delusional belief in the value of your outdated skills.

Many threads need to be woven together for HousingNewswire to launch successfully. Which comes first?

The people and businesses that generate housing news releases want to get their releases to the attention of the media. We need media people to pay attention to HousingNewswire and to begin clucking about its benefits. They won't do that unless HousingNewswire aggregates a substantial body of news release content and provides fresh eggs daily.

Where will that content come from? We're asking a few building industry leaders to engage in what Coleridge called a "willing suspension of disbelief" and test a more public form of public relations.

We met with one of those leaders this morning. Garrison Partners is a top-tier builder-marketing services firm that represents dozens of new construction developments in more than a dozen states. As such, it is a key influencer in the purchase of traditional public relations services for the developments iti represents.

The staff of Garrison Partners grasped the benefits of HousingNewswire and will, it appears, help us secure the content we need for a successful launch.

That equation sums up much of what's wrong with the real estate "public" relations community in Chicago and other major cities.

If PR people know anything (and the more exposure you have to them, the more debatable that proposition becomes), they know how to reach the press.

We all know that reaching the press, and the people who read the printed press, is a game of rapidly-diminishing returns.

Restate our starting equation: traditional PR = poor returns.

HousingNewswire will take PR news releases to the media, to industry influentials, and directly and pervasively to the public.

Media Guerrilla looks at some of the pricing pressures on public relations in light of blogging and other changes in the landscape, and links to a variety of resources for DIY PR.

A news release on the Web needs to be very different from a news release in print.

Jakob Nielsen, the "guru of Web page usability,? contends that Web readers "prefer to scan rather than read, want text to be short and to the point, and detest overly hyped promotional writing … "

How many news releases do you see that are scannable, concise and avoid hype? I hope it's more than I see.

This is a topic that we'll visit and revisit from time to time. In the meantime, start with Nielsen's good advice.

The title of this post is a phrase that's a convention of the printed news release.

It's intended to let an editor know that the news is not embargoed to a later date.

When used as the subject line of an e-mail, it's a great way to irritate an editor into not opening the e-mail, and a sure way to make it difficult for an editor to locate a news release he might want to print.

How often are public relations people guilty of this gaffe? Too often.

I had breakfast today with one of the brightest and savviest people in Chicago's real estate advertising community. We'll call him adosaurus rex for purposes of this post.

I talked about HousingNewswire, and the potential it holds for his home builder clients.

Adosaurus rex saw an asteroid in every point of light I tried to shine on the subject. Everything I saw as an opportunity, he saw as a threat. Change, in his view, threatened extinction.

Disruptive technologies marginalize people who fear the changes they portend. Adosaurus rex won't become extinct very soon, but he may soon become irrelevant.

In the meantime, I'll be breakfasting a few more of his species.

Some housing news release genres deserve to die.

The floor plan story ranks high on my "never want to see another one" list. To understand why, all you need do is read one.

The following is from an actual floor plan story (names deleted to protect the guilty) and is representative of the genre:

The [ model name ], a 1,798-square-foot two-story home, is among the plans being offered for early delivery. Base-priced from $192,900, the [ model name ] includes three bedrooms, 2½ baths, finished lower level and two-car garage.

The main living level features a spacious living room, formal dining room, kitchen and breakfast nook with sliding glass doors to a balcony. The kitchen opens to a family room and a powder room also is located on this floor.

Upstairs, the master bedroom boasts a volume ceiling, walk-in closet and private bath while the two other bedrooms are served by a hall bath.

The laundry room is on this floor.

The lower level includes a finished bonus room and access to the garage.

Is there anyone who prefers reading that slop to looking at the floor plan and model photos?

Each of our housing news releases has a unique URL, which makes it easy for a print reader to go directly to expanded info on the Web.

What about readers who don't have Internet access, you might ask? The short answer: they're not likely to be buying homes.