Press Releases

Press Releases

The press release is essentially a communication form.

It is typically a short page or two of text often written in a semi-standardized format.

It is sent to various media outlets, usually with the hope of attracting journalistic attention and subsequent publication through media channels.

The objectives – principles

People or institutions often wish to communicate to as a wide a number of other people as possible. This may be in terms of the absolute number of people reached or, more typically, to certain target groups of individuals.

Mass mail-shots (including email distribution etc) are time consuming and have, at best, a questionable success rate in terms of achieving target group penetration.

Some forms of large-scale communication activity are also now environmentally controversial due to paper wastage or are socially controversial, such as telephone sales campaigns and unsolicited emails etc.

This poses a challenge for organizations wishing to mass-communicate and many increasingly see the press release as one method of getting a communication ‘out there’. This is based on the reasonable assumption that people are more likely to read media stories and publications that corporate mail shots etc.

The objectives – specifics

A group, individual or organization may wish to issue a press release for numerous reasons:

Genuine news communication for interest;
Packaged delivery of news to the media in at attempt to shape or manage media analysis and reporting of it (often in the context of bad or controversial news – this often includes the concept of ‘spinning’);
Simple PR or thinly disguised advertising;
Misdirection – attempting to focus media and public attention onto the subject matter and away from other things;
An indirect communication to shareholders (add confidence, increase share prices etc);
Meeting statutory requirements for public communication;
Etc.

This list is not exhaustive and there are also many subtle variations of the above.

Repositories

In today’s world there are several places where press releases may be placed:
Specialist press release web sites. Some of these may offer direct submission facilities and others are accessible through agencies. They may involve fees.

Some of these may, in fact, have a relatively low ‘hit level’ and careful selection is advisable. In any case, it may be necessary to think about SEO techniques if you’re planning to deposit articles into these forums.
Direct placements. These are effectively close to direct advertisements placed in various paper publications in press release format.

Social networking sites.

Direct media channels (e.g. newspapers or web news companies). These are the conventional media sources though now supplemented by web providers such as Google News etc.

Media reaction – traditional sources

Although it is difficult to safely generalize, many formal and traditional media channels are deeply skeptical about press releases.

The question of true press objectivity is a difficult one but many responsible media organizations will resist any obvious attempts at manipulation or being used merely as advertisement channels or PR mouthpieces for spin-doctors.

In the modern world there is also a press culture that emphasizes independent investigative journalism and which arguably denigrates routine ‘communicative’ co-operative publication.

This fact, combined with the sheer volume of press releases issued, means that it can be difficult to get a press release actually noticed, let alone published through conventional channels.

Random submissions through emails and faxes are typically unlikely to receive much attention and targeted releases through specialist brokers that exploit existing relationships may be a more profitable route.

Media reaction – New Channels

Many of these are, to all intents and purposes, essentially just advertising billboards.
Some may be free-of-charge while others are fee based. The individual providers may offer take-up and hit statistics.

Many are entirely open, but others may have membership requirements. Some may have certain compliance standards that need to be adhered to in terms of press release production.
Some have the objective of attracting direct readership while others are more designed to attract press interest and secondary (more widespread) publication.

If using a service targeted at attracting further media interest, it is advisable to follow the standards and formats that have become an unofficial industry standard for press releases over many years (see other articles in this series for details).