The new media press release - sign up!

By Tom Foremski - June 7, 2006

I've had a tremendous amount of interest in my proposal to change the press/news release into something more useful. Yes, there was a tremendous amount of pushback on my Die! Press Release Die! Die! Die! moderate proposal, but there was also a tremendous amount of support.

Yes, I should have used a less inflammatory headline. However, I wanted to make the point that the press/news release is antiquated and a tremendous waste of valuable human labor. Why not put that work towards something that I can use?

Newsrooms around the world are decimated, there are ever fewer journalists because journalism needs to find a new source of revenues. It is cheaper and more effective to sell products next to a search box than next to journalism.

Or, as I sometimes stress my point, you can sell shampoo next to a search box but not next to a news story about beheadings in Iraq.

This is an extreme example, but the fact is that journalism is not the best way to sell products and services compared with online marketing around a search box. It is cheaper to advertise next to a search box because you don't have to pay for the journalism.

When I worked for a newspaper, the Financial Times, my employer sold products and services to pay for the journalism. The reason Google et al can sell advertising cheaper than newspapers is that they don't have to pay for the journalism. Yet journalism provides a social benefit that Google et al, do not...

So who will pay for the journalism? That is what is decimating newsrooms and that is what is making it difficult to report on the news and to provide that independent analysis/comment that independent media provide society.

This is the reason why I'm advocating change. The future is about professional media and professional communicators (PR firms, corporate communications groups) becoming partners in telling truthful, honest stories.

The future for journalism and PR is about helping communities, companies, people, tell their stories. And the best stories are compelling stories. And the most compelling stories are truthful stories.


And that means no spin. That doesn't mean that you cannot comb your hair, put on some pleasant clothes and put your best side forward, as we all do when we leave the house. But it means no spin, no falsehoods, no lying.

The future calls for honest, truthful representation. Marketing, as a term will go away. Representing, being an advocate for someone, will be more meaningful than our current marketing, PR, sales terms...

And that is where the fundamental unit of company communication, the press/news release plays an important role.

In my 25 years in the business of being a news reporter the press release has not changed one iota. Yet our media world is unrecognizable today from when I started in this business. We have podcasts, vidcasts, a multitude of media at our disposal yet press/news releases rarely have more than one link in them!

My proposal:

Put a lot of links in the press/news release so that I don't have to spend time adding links. But don't put links behind everything, be judicious, do it to add value, to help readers find more information.

- Deconstruct the press release so I can have a page of analyst quotes, a page of customer quotes, a page of company executive quotes, a page of relevant articles...again, all with lots of links connecting me, or my readers with relevant information.

- Deconstruct the press/news release in such a way that things are labelled/tagged. This is the label/tag for: "Company founded date" for "today's stock price" and this is "First quarter revenues." As a publisher, I can pre-assemble the information I need to complete my news story.

As a magazine or news site, maybe I can publish my "API" so that I can receive the news information in exactly the way I want it, so I can quickly integrate it into my news flow. As a reporter, I'm still in control of my spin, my angle on a news story. But there is no reason for me to rewrite things that are facts about a company, an individual, a community.

The journalist puts the spin/angle on a news story in the first two to three paragraphs. The rest is: what the CEO said today, what the company announced that day, what it announced last week, what is stock price that day, when it was founded. It is all factual, unspinable information.

There is no reason why I should have to rewrite it. Why not quote it directly: "The company said: . . ." And text could even have a pastel colored background to tell readers: this part of the news story is from the journalist, this part of the story is from the company. It is all transparent.

So, over the next few weeks, I will be working with representatives from Edelman, Shift Communications, Eastwick, and many others that want to create a standard format, standard labels/tags for the New Media Press Release.

I've no idea what the final product will look like, but that is the good part because we can all work on figuring out these things.

Ross Mayfield, CEO of SocialText, the corporate wiki company, has put together an online collaborative space that we can use to figure out the format for the new media press release. Please drop me an email with "new media press release" in the subject title if you'd like to work on this project.

I can't claim that I know how this will work out, but it will be worth your while, I promise :-)



Share this article

 Subscribe in a reader

By Tom Foremski - June 7, 2006 | Permalink | Comment | Category: New/Social Media Release
| SVW Toolbar | SVW Newsletter | SVW Mobile

Comments (8)

Amanda Chapel:

For the record, both sides of this debate miss a fundamental point. What format? English writing has been deconstructed ever since Ulysses.

Obviously, that’s grossly overstated. BUT... the "form" has always been flexible.

I learned this lesson early in my career. I had written the perfect press release. Luckily, I had an understanding and patient boss. A former bureau chief for the AP, Stan told me that I had buried the lead. "You've got the cure for cancer in the 5th paragraph," he said.

Since then, I realized that the form is actually common sense and transitory. This is more true today than it was then.

Food for thought.

- Amanda

Posted: June 8, 2006 11:51 AM

Ryan Anderson:

Hey Tom - I'm interested in being a part of this, but I can't find your email anywhere on the site. Can you shoot one back so I can tell you a little more about what we're doing?

Posted: June 8, 2006 12:11 PM

Ronna Porter:

Tom, I think your suggestions for the re-birth of the press/news release (7 June) are spot on. Journalist complaints of what is wrong with PR are commonplace. Its much rarer to hear constructive suggestions of what can be done.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. I went on maternity leave from directing European PR for Compaq Computer five years ago (when in Germany, do as the Germans do!) As I now re-start my career in the UK, I'm amazed how little seems to have changed in the ways the PR industry is harnessing today's communications opportunities. But maybe I've just not seen examples of those organisations that do it well. Which organisations do you, or your readers, beleive are starting to move in the right direction? Maybe we can all learn from some good examples.

Posted: July 5, 2006 11:33 AM

Tim Cohn:

Tom, could this be embedded in a browser like Firefox?

Posted: July 7, 2006 6:34 AM

Chris Harker:

Hi
I would like to know where I can promote an
idea to simplify life at home?

Posted: August 22, 2006 8:18 PM

Tacker:

I’ve heard many discussions lately surrounding PR 101 in regards to writing press releases. Everyone says, write well, write clearly, get to the point, reduce hyperbole, etc. But as with every educational institution, there are always different “schools” of thought on how to write well. So PR 101 doesn’t mean much if you didn’t learn the right things along the way. This really shouldn’t be open to various interpretations. Take the following advice at its core and don’t deviate from it.

Posted: November 21, 2006 4:50 AM

Jeremy Jones:

Whether journalists are ready or not for the social media press release, the PR community now has a great opportunity to thoroughly discuss the concept and try to get some traction with the whole idea of evolving the press release into something far more valuable than purely a vehicle for transmitting messages.

Posted: December 5, 2006 4:51 AM

Gerard Kennedy:

There’s a growing amount of buzz about social media lately, but specifically of interest is social media press releases. As we fold the new media press release, press room and media relations tactics into our PR strategy, I’ve been monitoring a number of resources on the topic of new media PR and the hRelease or social media release

Posted: December 7, 2006 4:37 AM

Post a comment