Don't "stop the press releases" - just use them wisely

I picked up a copy of Entrepreneur magazine before a recent flight, and was surprised while reading it on the plane to see the headline, “Stop the Press Releases” – calling them a “bad PR tactic,” and "borderline useless.” The online version, seen here, is a bit kinder: “Is Sending Out a Press Release Really Worth the Money?”

The article essentially warns entrepreneurs that PR firms charge too much to write a press release, then dupe clients into paying the excessive wire distribution fees by promising 100 million audience impressions. There is some balance included later on, but by then most readers are probably thinking PR folk are up to no good.

I’m sure many PR practitioners experience -- as I have many times -- when someone asks you what you do for a living and you say “PR” (whatever specialty, in my case healthcare), they respond with, “Oh, you put out press releases?” This always makes me cringe, yet there’s so much to explain, and I realized long ago that this is the most visible and obvious single item most people recognize. 

I will say this: there is some truth to the Entrepreneur article. Issuing a good press release requires some investment. Anyone could write their own headline, a quote, and a few descriptive paragraphs then put out a document on an inexpensive wire service, but what will this accomplish? If you are dealing with a legal situation, do you go DIY and risk your reputation and credibility, or do you hire an experienced and trustworthy lawyer? 

Back in the day, a press release was only visible to reporters on the wire terminals. If it didn’t get covered, no one in the public would ever see the information. But today, a release issued over a major paid newswire [PR Newswire, BusinessWire] will live infinitely online, and is optimized to rise to the top of company searches. This is one of the reasons the bigger services can get fairly expensive. And yes, these wire services inflate the audience reach numbers. I always add context to the numbers when I report the most salient results to clients.

A press release is a tool to be used tactically as part of a media plan. It is not a strategy, a program, and should not be a “one-and-done” activity. The reason a company pays an experienced PR professional to develop and distribute a press release is much more involved than the tactic itself. Here are a few reasons why:

1)  You are not paying just for someone to write a release. The final product looks simple, but there is a lot of pre-work required to get the key messages right, construct the right story, and ensure the release will achieve optimum visibility by the right people.

2)  To generate good quality coverage, your PR person or team needs to reach out directly to media contacts to pitch the news and facilitate interviews and/or coverage. Hard news by major companies will get noticed off the wires, but the vast majority of the time most releases will not be seen by target reporters without the follow up. To me, one really good article in a target outlet is worth more than 50+ verbatim pickups of a press release.  

3)  You don’t need a press release to generate media interest in a story angle, but many reporters will ask for one and are more likely to cover an angle if they see that a company is making a relevant public announcement. Moreover, especially these days when reporters have very little time to research stories and conduct interviews, they are more likely to cover a story with all the pertinent information organized in a well-written, 1-2 page press release.  

4)  If your goal is not to achieve quality media coverage – for example perhaps you want to issue a wire release to share with customers or investors – you can keep your costs down with a tight release and minimal to no follow up with reporters. Still, when you share it, or when it comes up at the top of a search about your company, you will want the release written by a professional to tell the right story and make a positive impression. 

Overall, companies (especially small ones) need to be thoughtful about when to issue a press release. Even public companies should not be issuing them continuously without hard news. That does get expensive and the information will be largely ignored. On the flip side, a company shouldn’t expect much from issuing a press release once in a while with no media engagement in between.

Technology enables automation in the media as it does in many industries, but cannot replace the “relations” in “public relations”. Key is to work with a good and trusted PR partner to craft the right strategy, maximize budget, and use tools like a press release wisely to support a company’s goals.