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Press Release Detail Template

Authoring and Editorial Guide

Press Release Detail Template

  • The Press Release Detail template is used only to display press releases. Press releases typically announce changes, official positions or responses, official support of a concept or initiaitve, big wins, or project success. 
  • Press releases are different from articles in that they are typically aimed towards media and influencer audiences and they are informing that audience of timely information. 
  • All press releases should be created in the Newsroom section of nature.org

Special Cases—press releases for multiple-state projects

For SEO reasons and because of the way press releases are aggregated in the newsroom, Global Digital guidance is not to allow multiple states to post slightly different versions of the same press release. Those versions can still be disseminated, but please contact your publishers for guidance before posting you state’s version on nature.org.

Press Release Style Checklist

These are some common things that authors sometimes miss on Press Release pages. Make sure the following items are completed:

  • Completed Properties in the Basic, Image, OG, SEO and Press Release Details tabs.
  • Business Group selected in Basic tab.
  • Hero title is event name in title case.
  • Hero subtitle is a sentence in sentence case.
  • Location appears below date in the hero—entered in the special credits field of that component.
  • Media Contacts listed.
  • Links to relevant pages in the text, and related articles component at the end of the page.

Properties

The following properties tabs must be filled in. Below is a brief list, followed by a complete list of all the fields that are required and optional. 

BASIC TAB

  • URL: This field will be used to auto-generate the URL. Include the state name or some other indication of location for SEO purposes. Write the URL in URL format - use only lower case letters, numbers and dashes (e.g. this-is-my-new-jersey-news). The URL will be cut off at 64 characters, so keep your Title shorter than that or words will get cut off. Do not include capital letters, underscores or special characters or extra spaces in the title—they will get turned into extra dashes.
  • Owner or Business Group: Make sure you designate the state (or country) as the Business Group. Use only one business group.
  • Page Title: Appears on the browser tab, and more importantly, is the headline you’ll see in search results, pulled onto cards in the newsroom page.
  • Page Description: This is the promotional text you’ll see in internal search results, pulled onto cards in various components, and on the newsroom page. Keep this to one sentence (150-160 characters maximum) and describe the basics of what the press release is about.
  • On Time and Off Time: Leave these blank unless you want to time the publication of the release—if so, you can set the On Time to the time you want the page to go live, but please mention that setting in your workflow title so we know you are doing it intentionally. The Off Time will auto-populate to make the page expire two years after publication.

IMAGE TAB

The image path you use here will dictate which image loads on cards in the newsroom. Remove special characters from image filenames before uploading them to the DAM. You need to have an image assigned here even if you don’t use an image in the hero component

OG and SEO TABS

Follow the general instructions in the properties guide and other SEO guidance from Global Digital.

PRESS RELEASE DETAILS TAB

  • Audience: Select media or influencer
  • Content Type: Press Release
  • Geographic Location: Select 1-3 locations that apply.
  • Places We Protect: Tag a preserve or landscape project if applicable. Otherwise leave blank.
  • Topic: Tag up to 4 that apply.
  • Date: Required—populates the date in the page hero text.
  • Location: Required. Use the format, City, State 2 Letter Abbreviation (i.e. Chicago, IL)
  • Business Group Leads: Should autopopulate with author’s name. Add other names of people who should get expiration warnings if desired.

Press Release Props.

Page Creation (2 Tabs)

  • This is the end portion of the URL of the page. Enter a URL in this field in URL format. Example: this-is-a-url-example. The URL field should contain ONLY lower case letters and numbers and dashes. Spaces and special characters are not allowed. Make sure you are happy with the page URL as it is very difficult to change. 50-character limit.

  • Page Title should be written for external audiences and displays on page cards, internal search results, breadcrumbs (if applicable) and in components when the title is not authored directly. 150-character limit.

  • This should be an enticing sentence or two about what readers will find on this page. It will be used on page cards and in internal search results. 

  • Select Places We Protect. The content type for all pages in the Press Release template should be "Press Release." 

  • This should be the BU or department that is the primary owner of the page. This field will be used for aggregation pages, analytics tracking, and will allow you to easily locate all of your pages for internal review or audit.

  • Select at least one audience tag that best describes the target audience of your content. Choose the broadest audience that would benefit from the goals of your page. For press releases typically choose media or influencers. 

  • Required. Select the date the press release was published.

  • Required. Location will display on press release and be visible to site visitors. Example: Arlington, VA. 

  • Required. Select up to four tags that represent the main topics of the content.

  • Enter the name of the person(s) who should recieve notifications if a link or asset on the page is expiring - or if the page itself is set to expire.

Basic Tab

  • COMPLETED IN PAGE CREATION STEP. Page Title should be written for external audiences and displays on page cards, internal search results, breadcrumbs (if applicable) and in components when the title is not authored directly. 150-character limit.

  • Optional. The only place this will used is as the subtitle in hero components if a custom subtitle is not entered in the component. 

  • COMPLETED IN PAGE CREATION STEP. This should be an enticing sentence or two about what readers will find on this page. It will be used on page cards and in internal search results. 

  • If the page is available in more than one language, enter the language of the current page in this field. 50 character limit. 

  • Enter the page path for the current page (the page in the language indicated in the previous field).

  • If the page is available in a different language, enter the name of that language here (in the native language - e.g. Español). 50 character limit.

  • Enter the page path for the alternate language version of the page (the language indicated in the previous field).

  • Checking this box will hide any active site-wide alert banners from displaying on your page. This may be used at your discretion, but is not generally recommended.

  • Checking this box will remove the social share buttons from the page. This may be used at your discretion but is not generally recommended.

  • Do not use this checkbox unless instructed to do so by global marketing teams.

  • Use the calendar icon to schedule a date and time for the page to go live once it is published. If none is selected, the page will go live automatically after workflow is complete. You can also select publish time when submitting your page for publishing. 

  • For non-evergreen content, enter a desired expiration date (off time). 

Image Tab

  • Required. Select an image to display on the page cards. This image will be pulled onto the page card in the following components: related events, search and featured content.

  • Enter a description of what is shown in the page card image selected in the field above. Alt text is critical to making the page accessible to all audiences. 

  • This field instructs AEM on how to crop the photo to fit the aspect ratio needed for desktop browsers. Select the section of the photo to maintain during cropping. (E.g., selecting Top/Left will maintain the top left corner of the image and will only crop as needed from the bottom and right sides)

  • This field instructs AEM on how to crop the photo to fit the aspect ratio needed for mobile browsers. Select the section of the photo to maintain during cropping. (E.g., selecting Top/Left will maintain the top left corner of the image and will only crop as needed from the bottom and right sides)

OG Tags (Social Share)

  • Enter a title for the social post. This will appear on social share card generated when someone shares the page link on social media.

  • Enter a short description. This should be an enticing sentence or two about what readers will find on this page. It will show on social media posts that generate from sharing page link.

  • Choose the most appropriate page type. Most pages that are not in the article template should be categorized as 'website.' Search engines need this piece of info to recognize pages. 

  • Required. Select an image to display when a social media post is generated from the page link.

  • Optional. Enter the relative URL for the page. Field determines the address that the social post will link to.

  • OG site name determines the source that displays on social posts. For pages on the TNC global English site, the field should read 'The Nature Conservancy.'

SEO Tab

  • This is what is seen in the browser tab and Google search results. Should be a shorter version of the page title and include high value words. If you have enough room, include branding at the end of the title: | The Nature Conservancy OR | TNC (though don't sacrifice important words to fit the branding in). 65 character limit.

  • This description is visible in Google and other external search engine results. It should primarily entice people to click on the page: what is the page about, why should people want to read it. 170 character limit.

Press Release Details tab

  • COMPLETED IN PAGE CREATION STEP. Select Press Release (should default to Press Release). 

  • COMPLETED IN PAGE CREATION STEP. This should be the BU or department that is the primary owner of the page. This field will be used for aggregation pages, analytics tracking, and will allow you to easily locate all of your pages for internal review or audit.

  • Optional. If applicable, select secondary business groups to be used for sorting and filtering. If the press release should appear connected with other business group(s) in search, filtering, and sorting, additional business group or groups should be entered here. This field is optional and multi-select. 

  • COMPLETED DURING PAGE CREATION STEP. Select at least one audience tag that best describes the target audience of your content. Choose the broadest audience that would benefit from the goals of your page. Typically that will be media or influencers for press releases. 

  • Required. Select the date the press release was published.

  • Required. Location will display on press release and be visible to site visitors. Example: Arlington, VA. 

  • COMPLETED DURING PAGE CREATION. Required. Select up to four tags that represent the main topics of the content.

  • Recommended if there is a focus on a location. Select one or two regions that are central to the content. 

  • Use only if the press release is specifically about a place we protect. Tag the place that is a main focus of the content.

  • COMPLETED IN PAGE CREATION. Required. Enter the name of the person(s) who should receive notifications if a link or asset on the page is expiring - or if the page itself is set to expire.

Component-by-Component Instructions

 

Article Hero Component

  • Choose Variation: Always choose text below image.
  • Title: Use the press release title in title case.
  • Subtitle: Use the press release subhead in sentence case with a period at the end.
  • Image: Enter hero image path, or leave blank if you are not using an image. Example of a release without a hero image.
  • Image Alt Text: Brief description of the image for those who can’t see it.
  • Special Credits: Put the location here in the format City, State Abbreviation (e.g. Chicago, IL). Eventually, the location will be pulled in from the properties, but this upgrade has not been added yet.
  • Date: The date will be pulled automatically from the Press Release Details tab of the properties.
  • Other fields: Should generally be left blank to allow the properties to be pulled from the DAM. If you enter anything in the Image Caption Title and Description fields, what you enter will override what is in the DAM.
Press Release Hero Fields
Press Release Hero Example

Media Contacts Component

  • Contact Cards: Add one to four cards.
  • Name: Only the name is technically required for each card, but logic dictates that the name and either the phone number or email address are the minimum needed per card.
  • Phone Number: Phone number format on nature.org is 212-621-1500. Use only dashes to separate numbers.
  • Email Address: Enter only the email address. AEM will make it clickable.
Media Contacts Component Fields
Media Contacts Example

Body Text

  • Do not put the location or date in the body text because those should be in the hero component.
  • A basic press release can have just a single RTE. More complex releases can have images and other additional components. Examples: Newmarket Tidal Culvert Project and Groundfish Comeback
  • If there is boilerplate text about a partner organization that needs to be included, it can be added in a separate RTE below the main release content, with a width and separator with a horizontal line separating it from the rest of the page. TNC boilerplate is included in the template, so it should not be duplicated in the body text.  Example
  • Include links to relevant nature.org pages or other resources within the text.

Ending Components

  • A related articles component should be included on all press release pages. This can be the automatic version of the component that links to pages pulled based on location or topic tags.
  • No other ending components are required.

Questions?

Contact the Storytelling & Content Team through the Marketing Requests Portal