Press Releases - the value of a word

Working for a non profit means dealing with tight budgets - so tight that on some days you are looking at your press release, not as a wonderful means of reaching out worldwide to the media and your audience, but as the enemy. All those words. Up to 400 words costs x but for each word over you have to pay. And that's when you end up in negotiations with yourself and your budget that can make you crazy. That's when you wonder - should I include the quote from the woman in Nigeria who is helping school children learn about computing? Or should I include the other quote from someone else who's equally good and her quote is 4 words less. It's a juggling act - quality vs quantity vs cost. Of course you know you need to include the high value items - the keywords that will get you picked up by search engines and the company names that the financial press will pick out to highlight on their site. It's a challenge. And I wish I had an easy solution. But instead I try to carefully craft the press releases I create so that they meet all of the objectives - to create an impact, to be picked up by the media , to meet the budget and of course to survive the review process.