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Ask any professional what they think about press releases and you’ll get a different opinion. Some might say the press release is an outdated and ineffective way to disseminate news. Yet, an equal proportion will argue that the press release is a valuable, even essential tool for their business. Who’s right?

In truth, both sides have valid arguments. I think those who feel the press release has no value think of “press release” as a strategy unto itself, which reflects an outdated mindset about public relations. Effective PR requires a multifaceted approach. Similarly, implementation of individual tools themselves also requires a multifaceted approach. Press releases are useful so long as first, it suits the need and second, the writing and method of delivery are adjusted to reflect how media seek for and evaluate potential stories. In other words, the press release’s real value is in how it is used given today’s media climate.

To better understand how the press release can be an effective tool in PR, it is important to understand best practices because getting the basics right drives a strategic and more modern mindset.

Essential Best Practices for Using Press Releases

Prose

The core to making a press release an active strategic tool, rather than a static piece of content is in the writing. Good press releases not only convey information, they provide context, supply additional resources, and answer the Why question.

Should you use the inverted media pyramid? Yes, but with some adjustments. The problem with writing the inverted pyramid is that when the writer is someone invested in the company, everything feels essential. To do a better job with the opening paragraph, flip your perspective as the writer. Think like a reporter. If a reporter wrote that opening paragraph, they would pick the essential elements their audience cares about, not necessarily what the company feels is most important. By mimicking the reporter’s mindset, facts that your audience care about pop up to the first paragraph and secondary details move further down.

Topics

Too many releases get written that will not be covered anywhere except the company website and social properties. Surprisingly, that’s okay. Sometimes. As a business entity, some information must be memorialized or released to the public in a written form. The implied virtue of a press release is that its content comes directly from the company and therefore it is truthful, accurate, and timely.

In my experience, the confusion about whether to issue a press release even for minor news items is not if it should be written. Rather the question is if the information is newsworthy and should be widely distributed. If it is newsworthy (or material), then write a press release and post it on a wire service like Businesswire.

Media

The next consideration is to evaluate if the release should be emailed to a reporter or media outlet. To make that decision, look carefully at the reporter’s portfolio and the media outlet’s coverage to see if similar news has appeared there before. If yes, then the outlet or reporter might be interested in your news. If similar news hasn’t appeared there before, don’t send it. It could be one of those cases where posting it to your company website and socials is appropriate.

On a broader scale, my advice is to not abuse the easy availability of reporter email addresses. Use the privilege of email for when you have stories to pitch or significant news to report. Don’t water down your effectiveness by emailing the media with every single press release your company generates. Think of it this way: winning an award from a magazine is not going to get picked up by a different magazine. While that bit of information might be important enough to memorialize in a press release, keep that for the company website, blog, LinkedIn, and other socials.

Wire Services

There are a lot of new “wire” services to choose from these days. The established wires are Businesswire, PRNewswire, and Market Wire, Most of the others are not wire services in the traditional sense. Many piggyback on another more established wire, or they are a website designed to look like a wire that simply emails your release to hundreds or thousands of media sites and reporters. Proliferation of these services has confused a lot of people. Almost anyone can get into the game by subscribing to a media database and breaking that into lists.

We have investigated some of these new wires and low-price services. Nearly all of them range from middling to bad – in fact damaging to the industry. My advice is to only use the reputable wires. We recommend Businesswire for several reasons. First, the wire is established and recognized around the globe. Second, if you use Businesswire to distribute your news, it reflects well on your company that you know enough to use the best. Third, they have editors who will read and format your release and sometimes they find errors to fix, or they might suggest smart changes and point out overlooked details. That is hugely beneficial, especially when the press release has been produced on a short turn-around. Fourth, using one of the low-end email-only wires is adding to the crush of emails reporters wade through each day.

Use the privilege of email for when you have stories to pitch or significant news to report. Don’t water down your effectiveness by emailing the media with every single press release your company generates.

Distribution

In addition to using the wire (or sometimes instead of the wire), you’ll be emailing your release to media outlets. Think this through carefully. Every time. Be sure that news you are sending has a snowball’s chance of getting picked up. If it doesn’t, don’t send the email. Journalists and media news desks receive far too many irrelevant releases in that crush. Instead, be known for sending smart pitches, not dross.

If you really do have product news that many people or even a specific audience cares about, email your release (or your pitch to be explained further below) to the reporters and outlets that run product news. Don’t get confused, however. Look carefully at the outlet’s articles. If they don’t run product news, you’ll need to send a variation instead like offering a source on the topic, proprietary data, and access to a user with an interesting and successful implementation.

Timing

I could write a master class on timing. The key point to know is that timing can work in your favor or against it. Email the information to media several days before the release hits the wire. State that the news is embargoed, but if you are worried someone might “jump” the embargo, ask them first if they’ll honor it before sending the details. Journalists who are interested in the news will reply back affirmatively. No journalist has ever jumped an embargo in our experience. We don’t worry about this happening because we know our targeted journalists very well.

Here are two timing scenarios for different kinds of press release we often encounter:

Example 1: Product Announcement

  1. Press release is prepped for the wire to run Nov. 1 which includes comments from a user where the product was piloted.
  2. On Oct 23, send a pitch to your top 3-5 trades stating what the news will be, but heavily emphasize the location that piloted the product and the outcomes. Be sure you have approval from the user that media could contact them.
  3. Also on Oct 23, email the local media or a handful of selected reporters about your interesting story and outcome – under embargo
  4. On Oct 29, email the release under embargo to the second tier of industry trades UNLESS you have agreed to an exclusive with one specific outlet. This is where experience comes in handy because navigating exclusives is tricky.
  5. On Nov 1, your release crosses the wire and everyone can see it. Email any last minute outlets. Post to company socials and website. Follow up with media as necessary.

Example 2: Company Executive Hired

  1. First, obtain both a horizontal and vertical high-resolution photo of your new executive. If there is no time to send a professional photograph over to take photos, insist that a colleague snap several photos in an authentic work-like setting. Poor quality can be forgiven if the photo is interesting as long as it is high resolution.
  2. Prep the press release for the wire to run Nov. 1 (including the photo).
  3. On Oct 23, send the embargoed release to the local business journal and other local media.
  4. On Oct 23, email the embargoed release to industry and professional association trades.
  5. On Nov 1, release crosses the wire. Post to company socials and website. Follow up with media as necessary.

These are dramatically simplified workflows, but they illustrate that the press release on the wire is the last step in a series of efforts.

Pitching

In most cases, a reporter knows in the first 3 sentences if a pitch or release is of interest to them and their audience. Therefore, my recommendation is to send the opening paragraph or a summary and use the other precious sentences to explain if it is an exclusive, to describe your sources, and outline proprietary data. Be real. Be human. These days your email has to prove that it wasn’t written by AI.

If your news isn’t stellar, acknowledge that and explain to the recipient why you are sending it. Many times the press release is ho-hum, but you actually have some good information and sources to share. Consider this hypothetical example:

Hi Mary – Thought you might like to know that MightyTrack just released an AI integration. I realize you don’t normally cover product news and we are all awash in AI, but I remember that you cover unique ways small companies have dealt with accounting and finance.

Given that, you might like this pilot study. A boutique accounting firm in Birmingham saved 25 percent in time and reduced rewrites by 95 percent using MightyTrack. When the pilot finishes, I’d like to come back to you with more information including how they made the transition.

With this example the news is mentioned, but the pitch proves that you know what the reporter covers, you aren’t an AI bot, and you’ve also spared them 600 extraneous words.

Additional Ways to Improve Success With Press Releases

The above explains how to use press releases effectively. What follows are best practices to make them work even better.

Use Images – Images convey what words cannot, so use great ones and maximize their value. Be sure the company name or logo shows on the image. I’m continually amazed at how many product images we’ve received from companies that do not show their company name and/or logo anywhere. If a logo can’t be added, put the image in a frame or add a banner. If using a graph of data, name the axes, have a title, and include logo and URL.

If using a screen grab, understand the differences between the amount of pixels your computer screen can produce and what is really a 300-dpi image. In truth 150-dpi is usually sufficient for digital. If you can’t get the original artwork behind the page, have a graphic artist work with the image to improve its appearance.

Don’t forget to write a detailed caption and use the real estate to reinforce those key messages. It’s even possible add your URL. Editors will cut from the bottom so pack the first few lines with key information including what, when, who, and where.

Embed Good Links – Paragraph one of your release must have your company URL. Lots of companies forget this. A good desk editor at the wire service will point it out if it has been forgotten. Link back to a few data sources if relevant and whenever possible, use deep links to robust content.

Put the Company name in the title – Seems obvious but this often is overlooked.

City or state wires are sufficient – There is little reason to pay the full amount to distribute your news on the wire using the largest circuit possible. Selecting a state or metro market will suffice.

Use a relevant date line – For company-centric news, your company headquarter’s city is the location of release – IOW the city. If writing about your product being accepted as an approved vendor in say, California, use a major metro area in California, preferably one with relevance to your news. For example, if your pilot tester was in Los Angeles, use Los Angeles in the dateline.

Spice up boilerplates – A great boilerplate explains what the company does in terms of the end user. Here’s two opening lines to illustrate:

Blah: MightyTrack is an AI-based search engine to locate discrepancies in accounting.

Active: Accountants use MightyTrack to find and fix errors with 99 percent greater accuracy.

The point is to adjust in ways that are slightly more significant than moving from passive to active voice; Rather, explain the solution in terms of the end-user.

Full confession: I don’t always win this battle with clients and you might not either. That’s okay. Many times there are factors and layers of approval that went into creating a company boilerplate. Instead, apply your expertise to other elements of the release.

Understand the difference between pickup and editorial coverage – The wire service will show all sorts of pickup of the release. These are verbatim feeds of the release onto those subscribing news partners’ websites. Some sites delete those releases in a few days or weeks so grab a pdf as soon as you see it (if you are relying on that hit to validate its presence).

Keep in mind that these feeds are not the same as editorial coverage. Editorial means that a reporter has gone in, read the release and applied their own words and interpretations to the news to make it an article. It might read almost exactly like the press release, but it won’t have a dateline. A wire service’s report won’t show this kind of editorial coverage, only the feeds of your release. Don’t try to pass off feeds as true editorial coverage. Keep these metrics separate or at the very least, make sure your clients understand the difference.

This was originally published in PR in EdTech on LinkedIn on January 2, 2025.

By Published On: January 13th, 2025Categories: blog, PR in EdTech

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