Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Pyramid Style

The pyramid style is used by journalists when writing news stories and public relations practitioners when writing media releases and other pieces. Using this format, the most important information goes at the top of the story and the least important information goes at the bottom.

In a media release, the pyramid begins with the “lead,” the main purpose of the release that contains the news angle. This is followed by the five W's used by journalists—who, what, where, when, and why. At this point, usually a few sentences in length, the release should be able to stand on its own without additional details, if necessary. Supporting information comes next. Using this format, if the release is edited from the bottom, no critical information will be lost.

The pyramid style, also referred to as inverted pyramid style, may be used in other types of writing as well. For example, each entry in this encyclopedia is written in pyramid style. Just as an editor may read only the first few lines of a media release, readers of this book may not read each entry in its entirety. Therefore, each entry begins with a definition of the topic, an explanation of why it is important and basic information. The topic is then more fully discussed in subsequent paragraphs.

The Pyramid

Ronald D. Smith (2003) provided the following outline of the inverted pyramid used in public relations writing:

News lead. This is the most important information. An editor should be able to read this first line or two and determine why the information is newsworthy—or why the media release should be thrown away.
Benefit statement. Once the newsworthy information has been clearly stated in the lead, the writer must show why the information is significant to the audience.
Secondary details. Any of the five W's not already mentioned come next. At this point, the audience should have all the information it needs to pursue the topic.
Background information. As the pyramid works its way to the bottom, it's time to add supporting information on the subject of the media release.
Action statement. The release closes with information on how the audience—not the media—can get more information on the topic.
Organizational identification. An optional component of the inverted pyramid is the organizational identification, a oneor two-line description of the organization's mission—what it does, why it exists. This should be consistent for every release regardless of the topic.

As mentioned earlier in this entry, reporters and public relations practitioners both write using the inverted pyramid format; however, benefit statements, action statements, and organizational identifications are exclusive to public relations and are not used by journalists when writing stories.

  • release
  • pyramids
Ann R.Carden
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412952545.n362
See also

Bibliography

Smith, R. D. (2003). Becoming a public relations writer (
2nd ed.
). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Zappala, J. M., & Carden, A. R. (2004). Public relations work-text (
2nd ed.
). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution