media update’s Aisling McCarthy looks at the changing PR industry, and whether press releases are still worth sending.
While almost everything about a day in the life of a PR professional has changed over the last few years, one thing hasn’t: the press release. So why is that?
Before readers were bombarded with advertising distractions at every turn, press releases made a lot of sense. But as Marian Salzman writes
in an article for Forbes, “Who has time for a page-long press release in today’s world? Now you have to sell brands and ideas in 140 characters, including the pithy #tellstories hashtag.”
But this doesn’t necessarily mean that the time for press releases is over, it just means that they
have to change to suit the industry’s new needs.
TechCrunch editor, Mike Butcher,
wrote in a blog post that most press releases are written to appease the client, not to assist the journalist. “I think the press release format is DEAD,” he said.
Instead, Butcher suggested that when writing press releases, PR professionals should write the content in a way that will
make the journalist’s life easy, instead of simply stroking the client’s ego.
The debate about the relevance of press releases seems to have been ongoing for some time now.
In a previous media update article, Tracy Jones, MD of Positive Dialogue Communications, said that as the media landscape changes, so must press releases – “In order to not become obsolete.”.
“Now, more than ever, PR’s need to define exactly what message the client needs to communicate, to what audience, and what measurable success looks like, and then implement the best method of communication to reach them,” she said.
“Content should be written in a way that will make the journalist’s life easy, instead of simply stroking the client’s ego.”
By no means is the era of the press release over, says Nalene de Klerk, media and research liaison at Reputation Matters.
“The importance of press releases has not changed. What changed was that the media’s opinion of the importance of personal contacts and one-to-one talks has increased considerably.”
PR practitioners need to nurture healthy and mutually beneficial relationships with the media. De Klerk says that, in particular, it is important to understand that every PR professional has their own way of doing things, but that understanding the needs of the journalist will help to guide them.
“Each practitioner will have their own unique way of doing things, whether through press releases, phone calls or social media. Providing the journalist with information in a way that is convenient and nurturing requires a true understanding of what the journalist needs,” she says.
So, how can PR professionals adapt their press releases to assist journalists (and raise the chances of getting published)?
Butcher offers a few tips on how to do this:
- Tell the journalist what your brand does in one sentence, or three. But not 50.
- Before pitching what you think is news, you must make sure it actually is news.
- Subject lines should read like headlines.
- Opening sentences should get to the point – fast.