Are News Releases Dead? Or Do PR Pros Need To Reinvent Them?
By Steve Farnsworth @Steveology
The dirty public relations secret is that no one reads press releases except the people who write them. Why do we really bother to keep churning them out? Usually because they are written for the bosses who take the already horrible copy and make it worse.
Maybe it’s is time to stop writing them all together. However, could the real solution be to reimagine what they could be, and break out of the box (coffin) they are in now? What would that look like? What would bring life into a lifeless tool? Junko Yoshida gives us her take.
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Junko Yoshida is Editor-in-Chief of industry stalwart EE Times and EETimes.com. She is a noted technology journalist, and is now widely respected for her leadership and growth of the EE Times news organization at a time when most publications have been unable to survive.
Editor
April 22, 2012
Are releases dead? I don’t believe so.
Alan C. Graner
October 2, 2012
The news release isn’t dead–far from it–IF companies follow what Junko and others keep repeating: It’s all about news and information. If there’s no news, don’t write it. If it has no interest outside your company, don’t write it. If it’s a self-serving advertisement, don’t write it. You’re just wasting time and money.
Aisha Belagam (@AishaBelaPR)
October 9, 2012
This is a stupid article! News releases are vital to this day, As @JimMcB said, they have transformed to include links to social media,etc and can be interactive thanks to the Web, but they are indeed still just as vital ##JMS481mcb
Steve Farnsworth A.K.A. @Steveology
October 9, 2012
As piercing as your insightful “Stupid” comment is, perhaps you can elucidate a little bit more, and use your extensive vocabulary and acumen to opine just what is so cretinous about the post.
Sohaib Mustafa
February 4, 2013
I second Steve. I wouldn’t go as far as claiming it is dead but yes, PRL is a tool that has been misused and has been used most of the times to please the management. I prefer the top management blogging about even internal news if they have to rather than sending out a PRL for what seems to be a news only to a few. You only end up pissing the journalists/editors off and their idea of i-hate-corporate grows stronger.
joshsang
February 27, 2013
so the release should be treated for what it is – just another form of “content” – and isnt that what we are all trying to create in today’s digital/ viral world? so yes, the rigor of writing the exact precise press release in its exact precise format maybe not so contemporary – but – if it is generating news, it certainly has its place under the sun!