Tuesday, March 5, 2013 the press release is here to stay
Never let it be said that we're not a broad church. Prompted by the debate around the future of press releases one press officer has written this defence of the channel.
by Kam Mistry
In a world obsessed with social media I’ve been asked to scribble a few words, well a few hundred words, in defence of the press release. Some argue that the ability to tweet and blog instantaneously means that traditional channels and methods are redundant – newspapers’ days are numbered. This is far from the case, and the press release as a tool in the professional communicator’s kit is far from humble.
True, twitter and other social media allow us to get messages out quickly, and as someone who works in local government I have found it invaluable, especially when we need to get messages out promptly, for example during flooding, heavy snow or during emergencies. People trust the information we provide, because it comes from a trusted source – and trust is important with all forms of communication.
Now, I’m not a fan of all of the media, in fact I don’t even believe in a free press, but that’s another story. Put aside the political agendas of some of the national papers for a moment and you’ll see that, generally, one thing that the press provides is trust. I appreciate the irony in that statement, but what I’m talking about is that they provide a filter. With twitter, individuals, groups and organisations can blurt out their own self-promoting messages and maybe even write their own articles and assume that the job is done. But when you send a press release to the media it has to be screened by journalists and editors so that it has relevance to their, and your, audience.
When I started off in PR, about 20 years ago, we used to send press releases and photos by post in hard-backed envelopes marked ‘Please do not bend’. Nowadays it’s all done by email but if you work in the public sector, your organisation should still be a marketable brand and should not get lost among the inevitable drivel in your key contacts’ inboxes. If you’re sending out quality PR, and of course making the effort to build relationships, your messages should still stand out. In a world drifting towards quick fixes, media relations takes effort – but the third party endorsement of the media which critically filters your message and deems it relevant, further strengthens your integrity. I could tweet that I’m a great lover. But how much more credible would it be if others said it?
I hear press releases criticised as spin. Really? It’s probably more so for tweeting and blogging. There are good press releases and bad ones. Good PRs know what makes journalists tick and are not foolish enough to insult their intelligence with subjective and biased opinion. They want facts, not spin. Tweets and blogs should have similar credibility. It’s the quality of the message not the channel that is important. Patronise your readers/followers at your peril.
Remember the dot.com bubble? When the world went crazy for the next big thing? Remember the crash? Today, with some evangelists getting carried away by the immediacy of social media and dismissing what came before, as professional communicators we should not throw our eggs into one basket. Effective communication involves thought and effort.
When you dissect it, you realise that the press release is a fantastic form of communication. You grab someone’s attention with a good headline, they then read your first paragraph and, assuming it’s still interesting, will continue to read the rest of it and then publish it. I suppose it’s a bit like the mating game – initial attraction, stimulate interest, maintain interest and then… oh dear this is turning into a Swiss Toni metaphor.
Yes, the press and media are having to evolve but they will be there for many years to come. Newspapers – in print and electronic forms - will continue to be key channels for effective communication and we really should not see them, or press releases, as anachronisms.
Put it this way. First there was radio and then television came along. Have we all thrown away our radios?
I could say a great deal more about the importance of the press release, but I’m already well over my allotted word count…and considerably over 140 characters.
Kam Mistry is a press officer in local government.
Reader Comments (6)
Well written, Kam. The press release is not dead (yet) just as the print media is not dead (yet). The game is changing and we need to adapt and evolve, adding more tools to our kit, but we shouldn't lose sight of the importance of crafting (yes, crafting) a good press release. As a former journalist (as many of us PR types are) I used to think that sounded a bit pompous and self-important. But it is a part of our 'craft' and writing a press release is a great discipline for teasing out and delivering key messages within context.
That's not to say it doesn't take a good writer to write a good tweet. I used to be a record and film reviews editor before I went into local government PR and the test of any potential freelance reviewer was always how well they could write a punchy, 50-word capsule review of an album rather than a florid 500-word paean or diatribe on the latest band. That has now shrunk to 140 characters, while writing effective content for mobile is challenging us to tighten the brevity, economy and pithiness of our writing further.
All good PR people should be able to write a great, compelling press release. Not least because local media, in my experience, are increasingly likely to use it verbatim given their own reductions in staffing and pressured time. That may be a dire state of affairs for those, like me, who still uphold the role of the journalist (another craft) and, depending on your point of view, it's maybe not a great thing for the reader - but it is how things are and will continue to go until the vaunted rise of the hyperlocal blog and citizen journalism (still very fringey in the rural south-west where I work in local government) usurps the role of the mainstream local press. I have had local journalists tell me they like my press releases because they don't need to rewrite them and they can top up their copy basket with deadline looming. That is worrying on several levels but it also means I have to keep the standard of my press releases high.
Of course, the importance of the local media is dwindling - as the recent ABC figures have shown, with only two local dailies seeing an increase in sales and some losing 20% of their readers. But our local daily is still read by 15,000 people and its website by more, so just as the early naysayers said Twitter wasn't worth the effort for a few hundred followers, neither should we discount this constituency of people, many of whom in areas such as mine with a large aging population and poor rural connectivity still rely on the local media as their main source of news about local services. So, while it's radical and exciting to want to hammer a stake into the heart of one of traditions and strike out towards new digital frontiers, it's better that we hold on to those old, trusty tools as well as the new-fangled ones.
Thanks Mike. Agree completely - writing press releases is indeed a craft. All the other points you make are bang on too. I'm certainly not anti twitter. I just believe that it hasn't made everything else redundant. I'm a firm believer in integrated comms and not just a one trick pony. (Blimey - why can't I say anything without stumbling into equine references?) Your points on the local market and how journos are also under huge pressure, also chime with my experience, and living in a rural area with an ageing population, as you mentioned, newspapers are important. Building relationships with the local media and treating them as colleagues rather than the enemy is still vital - and I do wonder, at times, if some see social media as a way around the press. Anyway, as you said, things are changing, and it's important that, irrespective of the channel, the quality of the message should be of paramount importance.
I think this is a very pertinent article, given that many see Social Media as a 'cure all' and a replacement for most existing communication channels.
Personally, I view press releases and a blog as two very separate channels. A good blog should be entertaining, provoking and have its own unique definable character. As Kam states here, a press release is a dry statement of fact(s) to form the basis for other people's reportage.
Many place press releases within an organisation's blog, but I think this is a mistake. Press releases should have their own online home, that's distinct from the blog. A 'news section' and a blog are not synonymous, and nor should they ever be.
Having said all of that, I don't think there is any issue with using appropriate Social Media channels to highlight a presence of a press release on a site.
Really interesting article Kam, I blogged about something similar recently.
It's a multi-channel world and there's room for a full mix of comms channels with press being one of them.
I'm a huge believer in digital and social but I don't think that they should be done at the expense of everything else. Press releases and social media aren't mutually exclusive and as communicators we should be looking at the best possible mix for our organisations.
Great points Kam, Nick, Mike - Strange that when we suggested these points at the Unconference was like we had suggested compulsory child abuse.... lol....
I have written posts on Comms2Point0 on the line that we ignore traditional media at our peril.
We need to reach out to all member of society - not just those who are social media literate...
Kam - Our population (like yours) contained a lot more elderly and working class people than the average and local papers and particulalrly their websites very popular and trusted.
It's nice to have all these new tools to play with though isn't it. All helps!
Hey Mark. Excuse delay in responding. Agree completely. I was a little taken aback by the hostility in the room too when a contrary view was put forward. As everyone on this blog has commented, there's room for all comms channels with well thought out strategies and plans.
Good to meet you. All the best. Keep in touch. Kam