Public relations professionals hear often that press releases are a waste of time, annoying, and clog the inboxes of journalists. An article on Axios quoted a communications advisor who stated that press releases are “from a different era.”
Despite the criticisms and pronouncements that the press release is dead, businesses continue to issue press releases—some estimates suggest that PR Newswire alone distributes around a thousand press releases a day.
Are PR professionals engaging in legacy behaviours out of habit, or is there some value to issuing a press release?
Pinpointing criticism
One of the biggest arguments against sending a press release is that they are not as effective at securing news coverage as they once were. A 2024 State of the Media report issued by PR Newswire reported that the top challenge for survey respondents was that press releases were “not generating anticipated media pickup”.
This is a valid critique, but why is this the case?
There is no shortage of reporting on journalists’ complaints about press releases. Topping the ongoing list of grievances are that they receive too many press releases, receive press releases that are not relevant to what they report on, and they receive press releases that are not newsworthy.
In short, the critiques revolve around poor targeting, and show evidence that the “spray and pray” method of press release distribution appears to be alive and well.
Lazy PR, in other words, continues to harm the efficacy of the news release. Relying on sending out loads of press release emails via wire services in order to secure high-value coverage is an exercise in futility.
Your best bet to capturing the interest of a journalist is to make sure that you are reaching the correct person with an interesting, relevant, and personalised pitch.
Why does the press release endure?
Despite the complaints about poor targeting and unnewsworthy content, the press release is convenient and useful—when done correctly.
Some journalists do actually value press releases. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the US regulatory body responsible for the securities industry, and they monitor publicly held companies. Reporting earnings information to the SEC is a requirement, and news releases that report profits and losses are considered to be an important component of transparency.
Not long ago, the SEC proposed a regulatory change that would have allowed companies to opt out of sending news releases if they used an alternative electronic method to distribute the same information. Permitted alternative formats to the news release were web conferences, or conference calls.
Business journalists responded in droves, alarmed by the proposal and defending the required issuance of news releases. Some of the arguments in favour of news releases included:
- Time constraints – listening in on conference calls for multiple publicly traded companies every quarter would take far more time than reviewing the text of news releases
- Technological barriers – listening to or viewing earnings calls requires fast and stable internet, whilst the text of a press release is not a technologically demanding format; an important consideration for journalists who travel frequently and cannot necessarily depend on a solid high-speed internet connection
- Convenience – business journalists in different time zones than the companies they report on mean dropping everything to join a call or webcast. And with thousands of publicly traded companies, there would undoubtedly be times when they would be forced to choose between calls, due to overlap
- Transparency – several journalists commented that it can be challenging enough to surface critical information in a news release. Concerns were that a presentation or call could allow for more glossing over of potentially negative information. Furthermore, the general public can search and find a news release far more easily than tracking down when an earnings call is scheduled
- Gatekeeping – a number of journalists raised the issue that permitting companies to disclose key financial information on a call or webcast could effectively prioritise those media outlets with personal connections to major companies—leaving smaller media outlets out of the loop
- Reporting accuracy – it is easier to refer to a written release when writing a news story, rather than going back-and-forth to a recording or automatically generated transcript
- Research/historical implications – going back and comparing earlier reporting would be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible
These are just a portion of the concerns voiced. Clearly, at very least business journalists value written releases for a host of reasons. And most of the articulated concerns do transfer to other news beats beyond earnings reporting requirements.
(If you are a PR professional in charge of writing news releases and are in need of an emotional boost, read through the comments to the SEC’s proposal. Also, it is interesting to hear directly from journalists what they value in a press release.)
Are there ways to make press releases more effective?
We can see that in some circumstances, press releases are considered by journalists to be not just useful but invaluable.
So, how do PR professionals make sure that what we are providing is viewed in that light, rather than just more clutter in a journalist’s inbox?
- Better targeting – make sure that your release is getting to the right person, at the right publication, at the right time.
- Be selective – we all know this is one of the more difficult messages to share with clients, but not everything a business does is newsworthy. Spend more time assessing whether something you have been asked to develop a news release around is worthy of coverage. Journalists receive dozens if not hundreds of emails every day. Make sure that yours is worth reading.
- Brevity – long-winded news releases full of buzzy phrases get passed over for succinct ones that get to the point.
And, speaking of buzzy words and phrases…try hard to avoid them. Filler words make a press release—something that is being sent to indicate there is news—sound like advertising copy. If you are feeling the need to inject hype into your press release to make it more interesting, it is probably not going to capture the attention of a journalist.
Above all, remember that your audience for a press release is journalists. Your news should be important, or interesting, to them. Newsrooms are extremely understaffed, and journalists are stretched thin. How can you help? View your press releases through this lens, every time. Revise or re-write if necessary.
When should you use AI?
Artificial intelligence/generative AI is being used more and more frequently, but do so with caution and oversight when it comes to your organisation’s press releases. Using it to craft an outline, or suggest possible headlines and subject lines for your release are generally safe uses for AI.
AI can also be effective in helping to turn a well-written press release into content for other channels, such as social media copy.
Press releases are not dead, but they have changed—and will continue to, and so PR professionals must adjust. As with so many things, putting in the work is your best bet to securing coverage. Take the time to research the journalists and outlets that match the audience you are hoping to reach. Then, craft a press release and subject line keeping the needs of a busy journalist at the centre of your pitch.
