What are the new rules? Head to webinknow to download the free e-book.

Money quote:

"Buyers read your press releases directly and you need to be talking their language."

Is your PR firm playing by the new rules? Does it know that there may be new rules?

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.

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.

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.