How to Write a New Hire Press Release

Local or regional communicators should write a media release whenever a new educator or county director is hired in a local office or research center. That media release should be provided to the state MarCom team to be uploaded to the global website with the local author’s byline along with a 1200x800 photo. The state MarCom team writes media releases for on-campus specialists and leadership.

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When a new educator joins your area, there should be a MarCom onboarding. This can be provided by a local communicator, regional communicators, or someone on the state MarCom team. This onboarding should involve meeting to talk about communications policies and procedures to be aware of, getting their website bio set up, and writing a media release announcement.

Have the new hire answer questions like the below as a starting point for the media release:

What are your areas of interest and expertise?
What will your Extension work focus on?
What sort of projects might you work on?
What are looking forward to about working with Extension?

Media Release Examples

NREE educators: New Extension environmental educator takes root in central Illinois; Environmental educator will connect east-central Illinois with natural resources
Local foods small farms educator: Illinois Extension invests in local agriculture, welcomes new educator, New Illinois Extension educator returns home to support local food growers
Horticulture educator: New U of I Extension educator poised to serve diverse needs of the tri-county area
4-H educator: Illinois Extension welcomes experienced 4-H educator to Springfield office, Extension empowers youth, new educator serving Northern Illinois
Family life educator: Illinois Extension’s commitment to family life education grows with new staffer in northwestern region
County director: Experienced Illinois Extension educator will lead efforts in Livingston, McLean, and Woodford counties

Suggested New Hire Media Release Structure

The following is the suggested outline for a new hire media release.

Short, simple descriptive headline with active verb

*URBANA, Ill. — Lead paragraph that is a few sentences long that introduces the need for staff to serve in this topic area. We don’t start with the fact that Extension hired someone; rather, we start with what challenge area that Extension supports in your area that the new hire will be contributing to by sharing research-based solutions with the local community.

The second paragraph is where to introduce the new hire by their full name and the full name of the counties where they will be serving. Maybe introduce any specific areas or projects the new hire will be working on.

**“The third paragraph is usually a quotation from the county director speaking about the benefits the new hire will bring to the area,” said County Director Name Name. “Maybe the quote continues into a second sentence expanding on the new hire’s experience.”

This paragraph is where you talk about the new hire: their background, experience, and expertise. What are they most interested in and passionate about?

“Time for a second quotation, this time from the new hire,” said Lastname. “A quotation should be reserved for something particularly insightful or exciting. If it’s neither of those things, it can likely be paraphrased in another paragraph.”

The last few paragraphs are background information, such as what degrees the new hire holds and any personal information they are open to sharing. This section can also include where they worked before they came to Extension. The last sentence can be what county office they will be based in and how the new hire can be contacted.

***About Extension: University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities—community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through six program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, family and consumer science, integrated health disparities, and natural resources, environment, and energy.

*Change this dateline to reflect your unit and where the new staff member will be primarily based.

**It’s a common practice for the writer to draft a quotation for the county director to review and approve. Link to the county director’s website bio on their name.

***This boilerplate is automatically included when uploading a media release to the website.