Why and how you should be sending press releases
The spray-and-pray approach is pretty much a waste of time—and it certainly doesn’t constitute a full strategy. Here’s guidance on the proper way to compose and use this much-maligned tool.
Are press releases dead?
That depends on how you use them.
A recent Twitter conversation confirmed as much and offered important insight into how PR and communications pros can give journalists what they need.
A Muck Rack survey of 500 journalists found that just 3 percent of U.S.-based journalists rely heavily on press releases, and 53 percent said they don’t rely on press releases at all. PR Daily wrote up the results, with the headline asserting, “Journalists are ditching the press release.”
Journalist Michelle Rafter, who has written for The Wall Street Journal, NBCNews.com and MSN Money, added some insights from her own experience:
Press releases have their uses. I search releases to find contact info for a company I need to get a comment from. Or save them if an exec or other employee could be a potential source. Otherwise it’s rare I’d write something based on one. https://t.co/IL1unLxCg5
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