Is there any point to press releases?

By Caroline Gilmour, copywriter

Journalists hate press releases but yet we keep sending them out. Antagonism towards what is surely just a way of spreading news makes PR people despair, but it’s not hard to see why they would be so despised. In fact, I recall during my days as a journalist getting the daily pile of press releases (they were sent by post in those days) and wondering how it was that so much paper could be used on something so unlikely to get a result.

It’s only recently, though, that journalists have begun to seriously kick back at press releases and their untargeted distribution, or maybe it’s just easier for us PR people to hear the complaints. Time was journalists hated press releases but at least thought they had a function in getting stories out there. Nowadays journalists are more likely to be of the opinion that press releases are pointless and that if the idea’s good enough, it can easily be pitched via phone, email or Twitter.

Why are press releases so annoying? PR people have a job to do in promoting their clients’ products and services but this doesn’t always tally with what the journalist needs or is willing to write about. Irrelevance has devalued the press release to the point where journalists just assume they’re going to contain nothing of any use.

Then there’s the terrible writing that clutters up so many releases. The release is, by definition, formulaic and PR people often fail to make the most of them simply because they can easily become bored. This is why so many releases are unfocused, full of clichés, jargon and empty boasts and devoid of any real news.

So should we still be writing them? From a PR perspective I think yes, we should, although we need to think very carefully about how they’re written, when they’re used and who they’re sent to.

A press release, when it’s done well, crystallizes a story and makes it useable. It’s the springboard for further coverage, giving the journalist the (suggested) angle, the details and the means to expand on the story. So yes, press releases are still needed, but they have to be used judiciously.

Dos and don’ts:

1. Don’t issue a release if there’s no real news. Every release has to have a reason why this story should be of interest to this journalist at this time. It’s our job to kick back against irrelevance rather than blindly issue a release that will just annoy the press.

2. Don’t stick to the ‘who, want, where, when’. The release has to tell the journalist why they should be running that story and why it’s important, not just announce that x company is releasing x product on x date.

3. Don’t overclaim. Journalists are tired of ‘revolutionary’, ‘industry-leading’ products. Try and say something more interesting.

4. Don’t be pretentious. Journalists have heard it all before and they won’t be impressed.

5. Do write in the language of the publication you’re trying to reach, without, of course, compromising your client’s brand values.

6. Do write the same release in a different style for different publications/industries, bringing different aspects of the story to the fore for different journalists.

7. Don’t send out to large lists of journalists without knowing or considering what each one writes about (journalists should accept that it’s not always possible to know precisely what a journalist will be interested in, especially if the PR person is new to the industry. We can but try).

8. Do keep it brief and lay out the release well. Journalists skim releases for what’s interesting. Don’t make them work to find the information.

What do you think?