Journalists spend, on average, less than a minute reading news releases, according to a study by Greentarget. You can reverse-engineer that to less than 200 words.

So how do you write a one-minute release?

I worked with a PR pro in my PR-writing workshop to boil down an 800-word release to 200 words or less with these five steps:

1. Tell what happened in an 8-word headline.

XX earns honors from Institute for Medicaid Innovation

2. Summarize the impact in a short deck. Bonus points for emotional language, like “feed the hungry” instead of “reduce food insecurity.”

Programs fed the hungry, provided street medicine for the homeless

3. Show how your program changed lives in the lead. Try a triad: Summarize three outcomes in quick sentences. Make people the subject of every sentence.

4. Transition to the body in the nut graph.

5. Write a quick list for the body. Keep the focus on people who benefited from your programs, not on the programs themselves. Make it scannable with bold-faced lead-ins:

6. Link to more details in the conclusion.

Would your release be twice as good if it were half as long?

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“Always grab the reader by the throat in the first paragraph,” said Time magazine reporter Paul O’Neil. “Sink your thumbs into his windpipe in the second and hold him against the wall until the tag line.”

How do you keep attention from the first paragraph through the tagline? Writing structure makes all the difference in how riveting your story can be.

Just ask Kathleen Sullivan, communication manager at Local Government Federal Credit Union. During my Get Clicked, Liked & Shared workshop, Kathleen reorganized a blog post from the inverted pyramid into the feature structure.

The feature approach convinces lots of people to read your post — and share your post. Plus, it’s a step-by-step structure that shows writers clearly what goes where.

Want to write successful blog content? What can you learn from Kathleen’s original and rewrite?

1. Lead

The job of the lead is to grab readers’ attention and draw them in.

In the original, Kathleen focuses on how the sausage was made … the abstract process behind the findings. Yaaaawn! Who cares about these interviews? Not me!

But Kathleen’s revision gets me, the reader, into the story. Moreover, she sets up a surprising scenario that grabs attention and pulls readers into the piece.

2. Nut graph

The job of the nut graph is to tell readers where you’re taking them.

Inverted pyramids don’t include nut graphs, so Kathleen’s original story skipped this element too.

But in her revised blog post, Kathleen encapsulates the main point in one quick, informal sentence:

3. Background section

In the background section, give readers information they need to know before they dive into the body of the story. That might be a definition, bit of context or history lesson.

But background is also known as blah-blah. Don’t let blah-blah get between your readers and your story: Keep this to one short paragraph.

In her original version, Kathleen delivers too much background, at 270 words.

And it’s too technical: Adaptive regulation? A combined perceptive and cognitive integration of emotions? Correlated to a positive orientation? Negative early engagements? No, thank you!

Kathleen’s revised background section is still a little long for my taste. But at 109 words, it’s 60% shorter than the original.

Her words are also shorter — about 10% shorter — and easy to read and understand. Now it sounds as if she’s telling me about this story on the elevator on our way to lunch.

Even better: It’s about me!

4. Body

The body is where you develop your story.

In Kathleen’s original, the meat of the story — the tips — are buried under 296 words of abstraction.

Plus, do’s and don’ts usually have a format: DO do this. DON’T do that. But instead, Kathleen used nouns. Those aren’t tips.

In her revision, Kathleen gets to the meat of the story faster and adds more detail. She also formats the tips as tips, not as things:

5. Wrapup

The job of the wrapup is to draw to a conclusion. Do you have a call to action? It goes here.

Here’s Kathleen’s original, packed with technical language:

Her revised piece is shorter and easier to read:

6. Kicker

The job of the kicker is to end with a bang, to leave a lasting impression.

Inverted pyramids don’t include kickers, so Kathleen’s original doesn’t, either.

But in the revision, she ends with a bang in a concrete, creative provocative final paragraph. Notice how she comes full circle back to the top.

So what’s the best blog post structure?

Writing structure is such one of the most important writing skills. Before you start writing a blog post or other social media piece, spend a few minutes organizing it into this structure.

Whether you’ve just started blogging or are already a pro:

• Start your content marketing piece with keyword research.
• Use the feature structure.
• Optimize your copy so search engines can find you.

Whatever your topic, create a blog post that keeps readers riveted from the first paragraph to the last line.

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My favorite scene in the movie “High Fidelity” is when Rob Gordon (John Cusack) becomes so depressed over his failed love life that he seeks solace in reorganizing his albums.

His nerdy pal Dick (Todd Louiso) is curious about the project. “Are you going to file them alphabetically?” Dick asks.

Nope, Rob answers.

“Chronologically?” Dick presses.

Nope, Rob replies.

“Not …” Dick gasps.

“Yep,” Rob says. “Autobiographically.”

Then he’ll have to remember, say, whom he was dating when he first heard Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” to find the album.

When it comes to music, the right organizing structure can help you navigate your collection more efficiently.

The same thing’s true with organizing the body of your story: The more appropriate the structural concept, the easier it is for your readers to make their way through your message.

Strengthen your core

The body of the story includes one or more sections in which you explore the subject of the story in more detail. If the nut graph is where you tell readers what you’re going to tell them, the body is where you tell them.

To avoid flabby middles:

1. Fulfil the promise you made in the nut graph.

Then stop. Hew to the walkaway sentence you wrote on the back of your business card. Don’t under-deliver — but don’t over-deliver either.

Nobody’s seeking AKK (all known knowledge) about this topic from you. So don’t tell them everything you know. Tell them just what they need to know.

2. Avoid the muddle in the middle.

Too often, writers understand the importance of strong beginnings and strong endings. But they simply throw all their other material into the body of their piece as if it were a trash can.

I call the result “the muddle in the middle” — a big blob of information in no particular order. Remember, in feature writing, the body has parts — probably one to seven — and you should know what they are.

3. Show the parts with subheads.

If the body of your piece has three points, you’ll have four subheads: one for each section of the body, plus one more to separate the body from the conclusion of the piece.

Five ways to whip your body into shape

People don’t drive alphabetically, points out Richard Saul Wurman, author of Information Architects and founder of TED conferences. Why, then, are atlases organized that way?

The best organizing principle for your piece depends on your topic. In designing the shape of your copy, as in designing so many things, form should follow function.

To avoid the muddle in the middle, figure out how your readers would really use your information. Then choose the best organizing principle to whip your body into shape.

Wurman uses the acronym LATCH to demonstrate how to organize information. “There are only five ways to do it,” he says. They are:

• Location. Move geographically — city to city, state to state, or country to country, for instance.
• Alphabet. Organize from A to Z.
• Theme. Tackle your topic categorically.
• Chronology. Progress from beginning to middle to end.
• Hierarchy. Structure from most important to least.

Five is all it takes.

I have yet to find a type of story that doesn’t fit into one of these five organizing schemes.

• Q&As, for instance, should be organized thematically. If you’re organizing yours chronologically, using the structure of the interview, think again!
• How-to articles, aka service pieces, generally run from first step to last. In other words, they’re chronological.
• Lists are usually organized hierarchically, thematically or chronologically.

So if you master these five structural principles, you’ll have all the tools you need to organize any story.

And note: “Autobiographically” is not on the list.

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