Derby Telegraph’s business reporter Oliver Astley is back and bashing bad PR again with his hashtag #prgripes. His first few niggles were gems and, once again, his frustrated tweets have become the perfect refresher course for both wannabe and long in-the-tooth PR managers.

Oliver is clearly crying out for someone to come up with a press release with all the right information without being repetitive. Every press release needs good structure – if you don’t have enough information to fill a few paragraphs, find some.

Perhaps a look at how Oliver writes his own articles would give an idea of how best to structure a good press release. He didn’t get where he is by finding five different ways to say the same sentence.

But this isn’t all that he has to say. It doesn’t even have to be the main body of the press release that gets his hackles up.

Oliver has a point, as always, with the latter. It is crucial when sending a press release that the images you include are not too big or too small to print. It is also important to remember that a larger image can clog up the reporter’s inbox, and no one on a tight schedule has time for that. It is advised that images accompanying a press release be around 1MB in size.

In relation to his other tweet, embargos are never to be used lightly. It is a marmite situation: some journalists hate them, while others find the time delay a helpful tool to prepare them fully for the release. It all really depends on what the article is to be used for. But, as Oliver says, unless it needs one, don’t include one.

Keep the free masterclasses coming, Oliver!