Is it time to bury the Press Release?

It wasn’t too long ago that the press release was the ultimate news source for media. Pushed to various news outlets, this well written and summarizing piece was, after all, “for immediate use” and welcomed as a fresh source of information for hungry journalists. But a good press release takes time to prepare, write, get approved, and edit, which slows the process down before being officially sent out to the media. The journalists then take the release and many times adapt it for their own stories—yet another step that slows down its publication. In a virtual world of other real time news sources, the press release may seem like the tortoise running with the hare.

Although articles like 5 Reasons the Press Release Isn’t Dead Yet are convincing in listing press release attributes, the fact is that most Americans are getting their news from other than traditional outlets. Today’s vast options available for public consumption include websites, blogs, and social networks as well as digital versions of traditional news sources. In addition, the many devices made available to connect to the internet has given birth to portable news, making it accessible anytime of the day. In a recent study reviewed by How Americans Get Their News it was found that 56% of American adults reported using a cell phone to access news in a week while another 29 percent reported getting it from a tablet. A little less than half accessed online only sources for their news including Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post among others.

Once word gets out on the internet, anything worthy of notice happens in seconds. Online users are not only reading about news items, their reading about what their friends and family are saying about the news. So is it time to bury the press release once and for all? For those companies who use it for annual reports and anchors for website links to their own news pages and who just can’t seem to let it go, no. But for progressive, forward thinking organizations who want to be on the cutting edge of what’s new and reinventing ways to talk about it, it may be time.

Cody, S.  (2014).  5 Reasons the Press Release Isn’t Dead Yet, Inc. com.  Retrieved October 17, 2014 from http://www.inc.com/steve-cody/5-reasons-the-press-release-isnt-dead-yet.html

Staff.  (2014) How Americans get their news, American Press Institute. Retrieved October 17, 2014 from http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/how-americans-get-news/

The personal news cycle: How americans get their news.  (2014).  Media Report to Women, 42(2), 1-2. Retrieved October 19, 2014 from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1528474643?accountid=14749