Press Release Submission Guidelines

Inman News

Glenn Roberts Jr., Managing Editor
(510) 658-9252
Alameda, Calif.

Overview:

Inman News is a national daily online real estate news provider. While no exhaustive list of topics can possibly be compiled, we generally look for major newsworthy announcements from national, regional or large independent residential or commercial brokerage companies, other real estate transaction and mortgage-related companies, real estate-related dot-coms, real estate-related technology companies and real estate trade associations. We also cover sales of large office, industrial and retail buildings and leases of substantial amounts of office, industrial and retail space. Other topics of interest include home building, affordable housing, construction or substantial rehabilitation of large office, industrial and retail buildings, and sales, leases and construction of other types of commercial property. We also are interested in real estate-related trends, analyses and reports.

Editorial independence:

Inman News (a dba of Inman Group Inc.) is an independent news service and is not affiliated with any real estate company. Inman News reaches tens of thousands of readers every day via www.inman.com and the hundreds of Web sites that license the Inman News feed. Press releases are welcome and are accepted or rejected on the basis of news-worthiness and interest to our readers.

Submission:

Companies can now submit press releases directly to Inman News through a new partnership with Flierwire. Industry press releases submitted through the Flierwire program will automatically appear on Inman News. Click here to submit to press release.

Press releases may also be submitted via e-mail here, a press-release-only e-mail address directly accessible by our news reporters. Please do not send press releases to any other e-mail address.

E-mail messages other than press releases that are intended for the newsroom can be sent through our letter to the editor form.

Format:

Our preferred format for press release submissions is an attached MS Word document and the text "pasted in" to the body of the message. Feel free to top off your e-mail message with a brief statement (e.g., 1-2 sentences) explaining the relevance of your announcement to our readers.

Attachments:

Please do NOT send any type of large-format files (e.g., photos, spreadsheets, pdf files) or documents with embedded logos or other graphic designs. These large files clog up our server and result in other mail, including stories being filed by our reporters, being bounced back to the senders. Files larger than 500K are particularly troublesome and will be deleted immediately. If a large file is absolutely crucial to your news announcement, please send a link to where the file can be viewed online or request permission before sending the file. Executable file attachments (.exe) will be deleted. Please do not send e-mail that requires a download or plug-in.

Subject line:

Please include the name of your company (or for PR agencies the name of the company you represent) and the subject of your press release in the subject line of your e-mail message. (Hint: Paste the headline on the press release into the subject line on the message.) An identifiable subject line makes it much easier for us to find and route your release expeditiously. (We receive dozens of e-mail messages that have "press release" as the entire subject line.)

Priority:

Please do not turn on the "high priority" flag on press releases being submitted by e-mail. We know your announcement is important. Please don't send e-mail messages asking whether we do or don't want a certain press release. Just go ahead and send the release. If we don't want it, we won't use it. Fax and snail mail: Please do not submit press releases, press kits or other materials by fax or U.S. Mail. Inman News has a paperless virtual newsroom with reporters in multiple locations. E-mail is the only reliable way for us to get your message. Anything that arrives by snail mail is by definition stale news.

Embargo/Advance:

If you wish to send a press release in advance of the public announcement, please state clearly whether the information is for our advance use or is "embargoed" (i.e., not to be published) until a specified date. Clearly stated embargoes will be respected by our newsroom.

Hyperbole:

Sadly, we receive a surprising number of press releases that are so full of marketing hype we can't figure out what the announcement is about or determine whether it's newsworthy. If we can't interpret and understand it, it's not going to be picked up as news. Consequently, we highly recommend sticking to the facts and writing your press release in reasonable plain conversational language. More substance, less hype is a winning combination.

Geek-speak:

While we are very interested in newsworthy business concepts and innovations in the real estate industry, few of our readers are experts in hardware, software, Internet sites or other technology. Please explain your product or service in plain words.

Completeness:

We receive many "press releases" that are no more than 2-3 sentences and fail to provide enough information for a news story. Ideally, a press release should answer all the basic questions a reader would want to ask about the subject matter. Try to envision your news as a newspaper story: Have you explained who, what, where, why and how? Have you included full names, titles, locations, prices and other pertinent factual details? Have you explained the news story and its importance to the real estate industry or have you merely rehashed your company's "spin"?

Company background:

We receive press releases from literally hundreds of real estate companies. Rather than assuming we know all about your company and have your contact information at hand, please include in your release a short plain-language description of your business, the location of your company headquarters, your own name and telephone number and the name and telephone number of the person or people we may contact for additional information. If you are affiliated with a public relations agency and your announcement mentions more than one company, please state which of the companies in the press release you represent. If you would like a link from our story to your company's Web site, please include the main-page URL in your press release.

Corrections:

Please do not send your press release until you are absolutely 100 percent certain that it is accurate and ready to become news on hundreds of Web sites. While not all press releases get a "quick turn" in our newsroom, it's entirely possible that yours could be picked up and run live online within an hour--or sooner. If you discover a material factual error in a press release, please send a message withdrawing the release IMMEDIATELY, even if your corrected press release isn't yet ready for distribution. If you absolutely must withdraw or amend a press release due to a material factual error, please state the reason for the withdrawal or changed release in your message and include your name and telephone number.

Why your release wasn't used:

Typically, press releases are rejected for one or more of the following reasons:

• The writing is indecipherable and we can't figure out what the news release is about or even what the company's business is.
• The information is not newsworthy to our readership.
• The supposed "news" is no more than promotional information about a company, product or service.
• A company or organization swamps our newsroom with multiple press releases about very minor developments in its business.
• The information is moderately newsworthy, but only within a small local area or a foreign country.
• The information is moderately newsworthy, but only to a very narrow group of people.
• The information is anonymous, unsubstantiated rumor or appears to be less than credible for any other reason.
• The information is somewhat significant, but unfortunately happens to be announced during a rare week when an unusually large amount of much more significant news is also announced.

Photographs:

We rarely use photographs in our news feed, unless the photograph is itself the basis for the news story. Again, please do NOT e-mail photo files without prior permission from the editor.

Guidelines only:

Whether these guidelines are followed or not isn't a consideration in editorial decisions about the news-worthiness of any announcement. Following these guidelines does not guarantee use of your press release by Inman News.

Good faith:

No press release guidelines could possibly address every situation that may arise in the course of the news business. Please understand that we are acting in good faith and will aim to resolve any problems related to the news feed in an ethical and professional manner. Questions and comments about these guidelines are welcome and may be addressed here.

Copyright 2008 Inman News.