How to include a Q&A within your news release

Sometimes, you have news to share that’s only mildly newsworthy, but your subject-matter experts have something interesting to say. Within the formal structure of a news release, you can make the news more engaging by including a Q&A. 

A good example in the asset management world is the occasion of a fund reaching an anniversary milestone, such as the three-year mark, having achieved good performance. Institutional investors and the consultants who serve them are leery about strategies without an established track record. The same is true in the advisor space, as Morningstar waits for a fund’s three-year anniversary before assigning a star rating.  

However, it’s not exactly breaking news that a mutual fund still exists on a particular calendar date. Reporters and editors aren’t likely to write a news brief announcing that your fund has stood the test of this brief period of time. However, they may well like to hear from the fund’s portfolio manager or distribution chief to inform stories they’re working on.  

That’s where a Q&A-type news release is ideal. The main body of the release consists of a Q&A with either a portfolio manager, preferably, or a sales or distribution executive. That discussion can tie in with current market or industry conditions and create a reason to be in touch with not only media but investors and consultants, too.  

Just make sure not to reduce its effectiveness by writing text that’s self-congratulatory. As with market commentary or any other type of expert-view content, emphasize the educational aspects and allow the product-related messages to go along for the ride.  

Here’s a hypothetical example of a “milestone Q&A” news release opening, designed to be appropriate for sending to media as well as your own clients.

Investment team looks ahead as ABC Value Fund reaches three-year milestone 

Portfolio Manager Jane Smith says large-cap value opportunity set has changed, but buy/sell discipline hasn’t 

CHICAGO, September 15, 2023—The ABC Value Fund (ABCXX), ABC Advisors’ mutual fund focused on large-capitalization value stocks, today marked its three-year anniversary. With market dynamics favoring growth—and in particular, technology—stocks so far this year, value has lagged behind. In the following Q&A, Jane Smith, CFA, digs below the surface and argues why now is the time to position for a change in leadership.  

Smith manages the Fund as well as the firm’s associated separate account strategy, which ABC has offered for more than 20 years. In its first three years, the strategy has outperformed its benchmark S&P 500 Value Index by more than two percentage points on an annualized basis.  

[Standardized performance table and disclosures.] 

Q: What’s changed for value stocks versus the end of last year—when many people were surprised by their relative outperformance?  

[Answer.] 

The questions can then continue through, say, four to six responses. A useful pattern may be to start with market dynamics and then shift to the nature of the strategy and investor appetite for it. At the very bottom, after the firm boilerplate, include any required disclosures beyond those shown with the performance table. If compliance allows, include specific stock or sector ideas that illustrate the investment strategy. 

Remember, too, that people in the fund industry are well aware of the significance of a three-year (and sometimes five-year) milestone. If a reporter is intrigued by the Q&A content and writes a manager profile, there’s a good chance the milestone will appear in the story. Consultants and institutional investors will intuitively understand the significance, too. Think of the release as a way to help them do their jobs. Write the release in a way that offers meaningful information, then promote it via email, social media and sharing directly with reporters.  

If you’re considering posting a milestone Q&A release to a newswire service, you might like to opt for a shorter version that strips out the performance data (in order to shorten up disclosures) and some of the questions. Then, include a link in the short-form release to the full version on your website.  

Or, consider an inexpensive web-only posting service that doesn’t apply a word-count limit. This is exactly the kind of news you’d like to pop up, even months or years later, in organic search results when people search for the strategy, the fund ticker or portfolio manager’s name.  

And in that way, even though the Q&A portion of the content will be dated, your anniversary party can continue far beyond the milestone itself.

Lowe Group offers a range of media relations services. To learn more, send us a note and we’ll follow up with you.