By the way, I’ve been told Cocomment.com is a good way to track comments (and one of these day’s I”ll try it).

I think it’s fair to say that a lot of the pitches where the PR ends up better off sending the release do tend to result from doing it to too many people. However, I’m not sure personalisation is as much an issue as the PR’s knowledge of the client and the market they operate in.

I spend most of my time on electronics-related subjects where most of what pops out of companies is long on obscure technical detail and short on context. So, you will get a lot of people pitching who do not understand what they are pitching. I don’t regard that as a problem in itself – I think that not enough PRs get straight answers from the client by asking: “So, what’s different about this product or announcement that will make people pay attention?” or my favourite Q for when an interview has descended into Nuspeak, “So, why is that good?”

I guess the second element is that clients often ask PRs to pitch sub-par material “to boost sales for product X”. That’s never going to work well – the stories that pitch the best often don’t need pitching. But all too often have I heard PRs complain about product managers moaning that their group hasn’t had their fair share of press and, therefore, PR attention.

Your point about pitching is an important one and something to be addressed in a separte post (one of these days…). The lack of skilled media relations people making appropriate pitches is a common, and deserved, complaint from journalists. It’s a mix of laziness (take the time to know your journalists) and discipline (take the time not to pitch everyone under the sun). And it’s a problem that no part of the media ecosystem can resolve.

If I’ve done an interview, there is generally not that much need to refer to the release, unless the interview and the release conflict and then that just means you got to go back and check.

That does not mean the release is useless, however. In those situations, there can often be something in the release that does not make sense or looks to be a real claim and needs following up. The others just get tossed. Also, when researching a story sometime down the line or starting to follow a particular company, it’s useful to be able to refer to when Company X said it launched Product Y, or made an appointment – releases help build a timeline.

That said, information releases (including press releases) have gained tremendous value in other ways – as news items for targeted audiences, as search engine content and still as the best form of official statements of record.

If you take a look at my post on the X release (http://b2binsight.com/blog/?p=15), I’ve laid out a number of ways the format known as a press release can be used, with media being just one.

That said, many journalists still prefer to see a press release in certain instances. For example, when we pitch technology product launches it is common to have a journalist request a copy of the press releaes. This is due to the release still being seen as the main statement of record. So don’t count the traditional press release out, just realize its value has evolved into other areas while becoming more narrow as far as the media is concerned.

You wrote:

“First and foremost, the old media skill sets (media relations, analyst relations etc) are still critical and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Beware professionals that claim otherwise. Consumers still watch the news and read their daily newspaper; executives do the same while also listening to trade media and industry analysts.”

That’s true — I agree that mainstream and other forms of traditional media (such as trade press and analyst reports) will continue to be influential, and PR pros would do well to continue cultivating relationships with journalists and editors at those organizations.

That said, it seems to me that traditional press releases have generally lost their value an effectiveness with journalists and editors. Even if well-crafted, the fact that journalists and editors get so overwhelmed by them daily has relegated them collectively to the status of spam. I’m thinking PR pros would do well to lay off the press release and instead focus energy on more constructive and effective ways to connect with media pros in order to get story placement.

What do you think?

- Amy Gahran
RightConversation.com
Contentious.com