PRN Media How-To: Find Evergreen Content to Cure Your Holiday Writing Blues

This latest installment of PRN Media How-To focuses on making the most of PR Newswire for Journalists’ tools for creating fresh holiday content. Catch up on previous how-tos and try our free media tools for yourself by signing up at prnmedia.prnewswire.com.

The holidays can be an exciting and restful time.

But until you walk away from the newsroom for your official break, you’re in charge of posting daily, quality holiday content to your news site.

This deadline doesn’t always lend itself to creative writing. Most of the time, you’re forced to add new life to the same old holiday stories.

Try a different approach this year. Start with using the advance search tool on PR Newswire for Journalists and drive compelling content into those empty website spaces.

Keep these five things in mind, when readying your site for the holidays.

News Releases Get Creative.

Thanks to the rise in content marketing, news releases have become great vehicles for storytelling. Marketers and publicists know you’re pressed for time and low on staff through the new year, so they’re making releases easier than ever to use.

In fact, we’ve noticed a boost in blog and lifestyle releases.

A quick search of recent releases uncovered these gems, which can be either used as stand-alone or holiday-ified pieces:

• Hard Rock’s winning bid of Elvis Presley’s Gold Leaf Piano
• Expedia’s Study of Airplane Etiquette
• Worst States to Raise a Family on a Budget
• SiriusXM Names Artists and Songs of 2015

Many releases come with art or graphics.

Stop searching for high-resolution images and/or videos – many of our releases come with multimedia elements, making them easy to upload.

Feel free to publish photos, logos and videos without worrying about copyright issues. Everything on our newswire is fair game for use.

Recently, we carried the release about the Most Extensive Face Transplant to Date. It featured a before – and after – photo of the volunteer firefighter who underwent the surgery. The image made top news all over the country, and it was available through PR Newswire.

Need more multimedia elements for your site? Many releases also cross the newswire as complete press kits.

An example: Ad Council, U.S. Department of Transportation and Project Yellow Light Join Forces with YouTube Star Meg DeAngelis to Prevent Texting and Driving was distributed in English and Spanish with videos and photos, social media components, and stats to pick and choose from.

Advance the story.

If you cover the hospitality industry, you likely have seen the recent release that Marriott International plans to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Sometimes that kind of huge news hook is all you need to start thinking about how to advance the story. It’s the holidays – there are several angles you can take here.

For example, holidays tend to get gussied up right about now. How will Marriott’s new partnership with Starwood change how Starwood properties are decorating?

Let’s think beyond the holidays: Does Starwood expect post-holiday meetings and convention bookings to increase now that it’s going to be tied to an icon like Marriott?

Who doesn’t love that evergreen copy?

Say you’re a magazine and you’ve already closed your holiday gift-giving guide or round-ups months prior. You likely must continue updating your website.

So unless a major news event occurs, you’re probably still recycling the same ideas, tweaking them a bit, and adding a 2015 label.

Need some evergreen ideas to start from? Try these:

• Safety when cooking holiday meals
• Holiday travel tips. And even more holiday travel tips.
• Create holiday party magic

Need to follow up? That’s easy.

OK, so the newsroom’s quiet and you have more than a minute to complete the task of updating the site. You decide to make a few calls to add to and/or change some of the site content.

Finding a source to interview isn’t hard.

Every release that crosses our newswire comes with a media contact at the bottom of the release. Email and phone numbers are standard, and these folks are ready for your questions.

Finally, if you’ve not already tried our ProfNet service, give it a try. There are thousands of sources available for interview at any time.

Want to get started? It takes only a couple moments to register for our media services at prnmedia.prnewswire.com. If you have questions or would like to learn more, you can also drop us a line. We’re always happy to help!

Authors Christine Cube and Jessica Alas contributed to this post. Cube is an audience relations manager with PR Newswire and freelance writer. Follow her at @cpcube.  Alas is multicultural audience director with PR Newswire. Follow her at @alasjessica.