While you might be watching your colleagues start off on their vacations (or staycations, it’s 2020), you’ve got more holiday feature writing to do.

This annual deadline doesn’t always lead to your most creative writing.

Thankfully, you’ve got a place to go: Start with the advance search tool on PR Newswire for Journalists and fill those empty spaces on your website with compelling content.

Keep these five things in mind, when readying your news site for the holidays.

News releases get creative.

Thanks to content marketing, news releases have become great vehicles for storytelling. Marketers and publicists know you’re pressed for time and low on staff through the new year, so they’re making releases easier than ever to use.

A quick search of recent releases uncovered these announcements, which can be used as stand-alone holiday pieces:

• Emergency Physicians Urge Thanksgiving Precautions to Avoid Becoming a COVID Super Spreader Event
• RetailMeNot Confirms Holiday Season Will Start Earlier and See More Online Shopping Than Ever Before
• Tripadvisor Reveals 2020 Thanksgiving Travel Index: Over Half (56%) of Americans Still Traveling
• Report: Demand Jumps 475% For Hourly Workers in E-commerce Warehousing This Holiday Season
• Will Holidays be Naughty or Nice for Retailers? Consumers Dish on Shopping Plans
• Jennie-O Announces Celebrity Line-up for its 1-800-TURKEYS Hotline

Many releases come with art or graphics.

Stop searching for high-resolution images and/or videos – many of our releases come with multimedia elements, making them easy to upload.

Feel free to publish photos, logos, and videos without worrying about copyright issues. Everything on our newswire is fair game for use.

Here are just some of the images you might find if you search the word “holiday” on PR Newswire for Journalists.

Advance the story.

With the holidays come Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Organizations across a range of industries will be announcing new products and savings for consumers. And with 2020 being what it is, many of the holiday sales will be extended over several days/weeks or moved online, so it’s important to keep up with the latest announcements.

If you’re putting together a deal guide, list of gift ideas, or holiday budgeting tips, a custom newsfeed on PR Newswire for Journalists will help you find news to fit your needs. A search on PR Newswire will pull up these items:

• Target Kicks Off Holiday Savings Early with Largest-Ever Deal Days, Black Friday Pricing All November Long and Extended Price Match Guarantee
• Blue Apron to introduce first-ever Thanksgiving Feast
• Zulily Unveils Its First Ever Top Toy List For 2020 To Help Kids Connect, Move and Imagine
• Consumers Engaging In Holiday Shopping This Year Will Spend 18% Less Than Last Year; 41% Are Not Going To Black Friday Sales In Person
• DICK’S Sporting Goods Kicks Off Holiday Season On November 18 With First-Ever “10 Days of Black Friday”

Now, about that evergreen copy.

Say you’re a magazine writer and you closed your holiday gift-giving guide or round-ups months prior. You likely must continue updating your website.

So unless a major news event occurs, you’re probably still recycling the same ideas, tweaking them a bit, and adding a 2020 or 2021 label.

Need some evergreen ideas to start from? Try these:

• Petco Shares Unique Holiday Gift Ideas and Important Safety Tips for Pets
• Thanksgiving 101: Tips for a Safe, Enjoyable Holiday Season
• Spooked by maintaining your coronavirus garden? 4 Tips to winterize well
• Keep the path clear for holiday cheer!
• 7 Safety Tips for Turkey Fryers
• AAA Service helps homeowners avoid holiday disasters

Need to follow up? That’s easy.

If you decide to make a few calls to add to and/or change some of the site content, finding a source to interview isn’t hard.

Every release that crosses our newswire comes with a media contact in the release. Email and phone numbers are standard, and these folks are ready for your questions.

Finally, if you’ve not already tried our ProfNet or HARO services, give them a try. There are thousands of sources available for interview at any time.

(Note: This post is an updated version of a post that originally appeared on Beyond Bylines in Dec. 2016.)

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Rocky Parker is the manager of Audience Relations at PR Newswire. Check out her previous posts for Beyond Bylines and connect on LinkedIn. When she’s not working, Rocky typically can be found cooking, binge-watching a new show, or playing with her puppy, Hudson.