Ask a journalist about press releases and they’ll probably roll their eyes at some point. They’ll tell you that they get so many. They’ll moan about how irrelevant they are. They’ll complain that it’s often impossible to find the news in them and they’ll add their own pet peeves.
Generally press releases drive journalist bonkers – except on those rare occasions where they learn something new and relevant and get a story. Then they love them!
In these days of Tweets, User Generated Content, Podcasts, Vodcasts and Bloggers the role and the fate of the traditional press release is regularly debated. In September 2013, the executive director of government communications, Alex Aiken, told a conference of PR executives that as far as he was concerned press officers should not be reliant on press releases any more, instead they should be content producers.
“You should not start with three pages of A4, but a Tweet, an infographic or a video. If you are writing more than 200 words on any subject, you’re probably in the wrong place,” he told them. He cited work by Defra during the badger cull, when it sent out 350 Tweets but only distributed one press release.
But as many journalists and editors will tell you there is certainly a place for the traditional press release. If anything, these days, when many publications, both paper and online, are put together by smaller and smaller teams, it’s more common than ever to see a well-written press release simply copied and pasted. That’s a great result for the Comms team as well as being easy and quick for the journalist – a classic Win-Win.
Press releases are very useful for search engine optimisation too. Google and other search engines are very keen on them.
Whenever these tried and trusted vehicles are not used, it’s less likely to be because they’re press releases as such and more likely that they’re just not newsworthy. In other words, they don’t say anything that is topical, relevant to the receiver and that is new – news is new, as we keep having to remind people during our training courses! This is exactly the same criteria, of course, which will decide whether a Tweet or any other example of content is picked up or not by the media.
It’s a truism but it’s worth repeating – a journalist or editor is more likely to pick up on a press release if it has a really brief, punchy headline that is relevant to their audience. Then the whole story, that means one simple, clear message, has to be conveyed in the first paragraph. If you’re writing a press release you have to think in particular about the effect on the audience – will it worry them, cheer them up, abuse them, or give them the opportunity to become healthier richer and more successful in their careers?
The second or third paragraph should have a quote – as every PR person knows. But what they don’t always seem to realise is that this quote must be conversational, human and punchy. The rest of the press release can contain factual information but the quote has to have an emotional element or an interesting insight or observation.
It also has to say something. It’s no good repeating a vacuous, pointless comment about the CEO being delighted – he or she has got to tell us why they’re delighted, for instance. What’s new and different about this event for them?
Neither is it any good overdoing key search terms if you want to gain maximum Search Engine Optimisation value. A couple of references at the beginning and the end usually work well, as do the embedded links.
Imagery is also useful in these days of tight budgets. But as with the words, these have to be relevant to the audience, they should be editorial rather than cheesy product shots or library images.
So, it’s not that press releases are useless these days. It’s just that bad press releases are useless – as they always have been. Whether it’s a press release, a Tweet or any other form of communication with the media, the important point is to think carefully about your target audience and make it relevant and interesting to them.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 30 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers. To find out more about our highly practical Media Skills courses, contact us here. Don't forget to subscribe to our blog.
