Press release is dead
It passed away. Suddenly. It couldn’t stand such conditions. I regret. But you cannot change a river direction, can you?
Honor press release memory
It used to be like that: a PR specialist wrote a press released and pictures attached. He wrote it to a journalist. A journalist published it or not. Because of good communication between a PR specialist and a journalist you could read news in a paper.
Long live the news!
Today you don’t need to write a press release. You do not need a contact to a journalist to publish. You write news. You publish. They read. Done!
New news: you cannot tell a book by its cover
And media is open to receive a piece of info from you as never before. And a journalist is not needed any more. True or false? Yes, you can kick a ball and the ball flies, but can you say that you are a footballer? And does the ball goes into the goal?! What can you do?
You can publish a lot, but who will read it?
Writing to the net (inc. copywriting) needs knowledge and experience, so the probability that you will write good news is quite low. Of course, there are a lot of information, so even if your info is not so good, nobody will point it out. But it’s not your goal, is it? The crucial is to have news which you share. And finally people read it.
You can try, but why not to trust people who do it professionally?
Yes, you can learn how to write good news. Consult your text with PR specialist and talk about your information politics (because remember: one swallow doesn`t make a summer, so one news is not enough taking into account PR).
Yes, you can live without a journalist, but with him/her life is easier. At present media relation brings a new dimension: really counts true relation and not just sending a text. A journalist is still you permit to print media. He is a great source of info, but first of all is your ally – you share with him good news which he needs to earn his living. You have a customer. He has got a reader. So both of you work for the same person.
You can write: me, my company, we manufacture, but who cares?!
The most often mistake in reading news is writing about a company – so news which is not news, in fact. Who cares that a new factory was open? Who cares that anyone won a prize? Who care that a billion package of sweets was manufactures? This is the unforgettable mistake – writing about yourself. It is against the nature of news – news is a piece of info for somebody. So it should answer some the questions which ask a reader: what it brings to me? what does it change in my life?
Fot. white coffin by Naoko Yoshimoto