Global PR Blog Week 2.0

By Shel Holtz, Holtz Communication + Technology | A Shel of My Former Self
EDITORS’ CHOICE | Tools & Trends

Blogging enthusiasts from without and outside of the public relations profession have taken up the call to put the venerable press release out of its misery. Who needs the press release, the argument goes, now that we have blogs? (The New PR Wiki has a collection of blog postings on this meme.)

It’s not going to happen, nor should it. We know from repeated experience that new media do not kill off old media. Instead, old media adapt to the new media. So it will be with press releases and blogs. For some communication, organizations may find a blog to be a better vehicle than a press release. In some cases, blogs can supplement press releases. But press releases aren’t going anywhere, like it or not.

Amy Gahran, author of the Contentious blog, doesn’t necessarily believe blogs should replace press releases, but she thinks they should be retired from the communications toolkit in any case. Aren’t there enough more effective tools to use these days that we don’t have to resort to the stilted corporatese that characterizes the typical press release? she wonders. So intent is she on seeing the press release dead and buried that she has issued a challenge to communicators to find alternative means of getting the word out.

You have to admire the thinking that underlies Gahran’s desire to see a world free of press releases. But there is one fundamental reason we’ll never live in such a world: Press releases work.

That’s not enough for Gahran, who would counter, So what? Find something that works better that isn’t so lame. But press releases not only work. They work extraordinarily well, and for a variety of reasons. Of course, there are a lot of press releases that don’t work, but that’s rarely the fault of the press release. More often, it’s the fault of the practitioner who crafted the release – badly.

When done well, press releases do exactly what they’re designed to do. Fraser Seitel, writing in the standard PR text, “The Practice of Public Relations,� writes, “There is no better, clearer, more persuasive way to announce news about an organization, its products, and their applications than by issuing a news release. A news release may be written as the document of record to state an organization’s official position—for example, in a court case or in announcing a price or rate increase. More frequently, however, releases have one overriding purpose: to influence a publication to write favorably about the material discussed.�

Journalists are turning more and more to blogs, but not enough to forsake the medium they are already accustomed to using. While more than half of journalists are using blogs, according to a recent study (PDF), they are using them as research tools for stories they are already covering. Getting the right reporter from the targeted newspaper, radio station, magazine, or TV outlet to subscribe to an RSS feed or read your particular blog is another story altogether.

Consider the press release distribution services like BusinessWire and PR Newswire. These and other similar organizations have assembled lists of publications and reporters who cover certain topics or reach specific targeted audiences. That is, they push the release to the media that are most likely to want to report on the content of the release based on its relevance to their focus or their audience. No matter how hard you try, you simply cannot push a blog post or an RSS feed. People can only pull them.

And, as enamored as we may become of the online media, and as much as we may point to the declining numbers of newspaper subscribers, for now, at least, many of those in our target audiences are still newspaper readers. (And let’s not forget that press releases reach more journalists than just newspaper reporters. They even reach online outlets and get published in placed like Yahoo! where they are widely read.) Here’s a simple and important fact: A good press release sent to the right publication gets printed or used as the basis of a story. While you may argue that newspaper subscriptions are on the decline, I can counter than only 8% of Americans currently read blogs. If you want to reach as wide a swath of your target audience as possible, you still need to reach out to traditional media.

The fact that many people who aren’t journalists read press releases doesn’t alter the fact that media are releases’ primary target. In PR 101, most of us learned to accommodate the preferences of the reporter for getting information. You ignore reporters and editors who want to get your information via press release at your own peril.

Press releases also fulfill material disclosure requirements. In the US, companies can find themselves in plenty of trouble – jail time trouble – if they release material information to limited audiences, giving those individuals an unfair investment advantage over others. Concurrent distribution is a requirement to ensure all interested parties get the information at the same time, giving nobody an unfair advantage. Press release distribution services have lists that ensure release of material news that complies with the law.

Finally, press releases serve as the final, absolute statement of record by an organization, mainly because they are recognized as such by everyone from the media to the courts.

That’s not to say, however, that there aren’t plenty of bad press releases. As former Sun Microsystems communications executive (and prolific blogger) Andy Lark put it, “Bad writing. Terrible legal intervention. Risk and conflict averse communicators. And no news angle/hook are doing as much to destroy the value of news releases as anything.�

Most of the press releases issued today should never have seen the light of day because, ultimately, they weren’t news. But the fact that most releases are bad is no reason to kill the rest that work. Most of us working in this business have seen our share of terrific press releases that performed their tasks exceptionally well.

None of which is to suggest that blogs (or the Internet in general) cannot replace some press releases and supplement others. We have thousands of case studies of organizations taking to the Net to get the word out. Andy Lark points to Southwest Airlines and its online campaign to overturn the Wright amendment. But it hasn’t kept Southwest from issuing related press releases, such as one distributed in late June responding to a statement from the Air Travelers Association. Southwest is taking a strategic approach, using the appropriate tool based on the task at hand. The online campaign spreads the word through participatory communication tools and viral communication techniques. But when an adverse statement from an influential group hits the media, a release is the fastest way to get your own position to a public that has already absorbed the adverse material.

In other words, as professionals we should recognize that blogs and press releases are both tools of our trade, and that we should use the tools at our disposal based on their ability to accomplish the task at hand. Indeed, blogs will grow in importance as a channel for public relations. Given the declining impact of press releases in general (due to email overload, the volume of bad releases, and a host of other issues) and the ascent of blogs, it makes good sense to use them – where it makes sense. It makes equally good sense to continue to use press releases in instances where they will do the best job. And it makes the best sense to figure out how these tools can work together to produce the most satisfying outcomes.

About the author

Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology, a consulting firm that helps companies apply online technology to their organizational communication strategies. He is the author of four communicaiton-related books, and his new book, “Blogging for Business,” (with co-author Ted Demopoulos) will be released by Dearborn Financial Press in early 2006. He has also authored three manuals on the application of technology to organizational communication. He is a regular on the communication speaking circuit and conducts a series of workshops, including “Writing for the Wired World.” Shel has nearly 25 years of experience in organizational communications: He was director of Corporate Communications for both Allergan and Mattel, and spent several years as a senior consultant and practice leader for two leading human resources consulting firms. He is accredited by the International Association of Business Communicators, and is the recipient of five IABC international Gold Quill awards for communication excellence. IABC named Shel a Fellow — the association’s highest honor — in 2005. Shel received a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Cal State Northridge in 1976. His company is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

{tags: prblogweek, pr, public+relations, blogs, press+releases, media+relations}