So, the press release is actually ascending as a communications vehicle. InformationWeek says: “Press Releases Are More Popular Than Reported News, Says Study – Also, knowledge workers fail to find what they’re looking for in Internet searches 30% of the time. (thanks to Pop!PR for the pointer)
This is all based on a report from Outsell.
Despite all the rhetoric about the death of press releases this doesn’t surprise me. The utility of the press release coupled with effective distribution vehicles is pushing them into all the major news portals and throughout the blogosphere. Then, you’ve got waning trust in traditional media…
Is what we need a new format – like what the Shift guys are proposing? Tom is also on the case (I’m happy to help). The issue with new formats is distribution. The current standard formats are engineered for wire distribution. Links, imbedded images, all that other really cool stuff gets stripped in the transmission process. And the current cost structure of the distributors is slowing the take-up of new options. So, before we focus on format, lets focus on distribution. Then we have a fighting chance.
At the end of the day does this solve what people want vs. what the media want? Increasingly the press release isn’t written (perhaps even “mostly”) for the media – it is written for the “consumer”. What this survey flags for me is an opportunity communicate better using the existing medium. Against that backdrop, format is a sideshow to the real issue of well written and crafted communications. That is where the art is and real talent is required. An perhaps by doing both we deliver what everyone is looking for, a better press release.
You make an excellent point about distribution, which is really the achilles heel of any new idea, though I applaud Todd for sticking his neck out there.
As for content and writing skill, we have to get back to the support of education.
Andy,
fwiw – I believe marketers took the proverbial Church & State battle under ground as all the media big shots contemplated their DRM strategies, syndication partnership deals and integrated marketing proposals:
1. Press releases are optimizing for web search engines, while story content is not.
2. Web portals easily (and freely) redistribute press release content as news, while publisher content is not easily accessed and certainly not free.
3. Marketers buy out search terms, while publishers do not (heck many publishers even sell out their own site search terms).
The result: searches get you to Vendors not Stories.
Marketers get it; publishers do not. Will it last? As long as MS and Google promise an Ad Revenue based strategy, then yes.
IMHO, the analysts and reporters covering this shift missed the story. It’s not that press releases are Popular (e.g., chosen) but that they were Commercialized.
Our website . viecos. com is constantly writing and releasing press releases for our company as well as for our members. We even have a product we sell for Press Release Writing and Distribution. . viecos. com/webstore/press. htmlOnline Press Releases do wonders for online websites. Every time we post we see a jump in traffic to our website or to the sites we write about in our Press Releases. LauryndaCustomer Care ManagerVoices. com
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