Shel Holtz posts again about the press release is dead meme. He offers some good insight/retrospective into this never-ending issue with a story from his days at Allergan in the early 90's. Here's the key line though:
The release is targeted at the media, not at everyone else.
To those of you who think that blogs are the new press release do this (as I have done many times). Go down to you local paper and ask anybody in the newsroom if they are using RSS or blogs to receive information, let alone press releases. Chances are you will get some blank stares.
Now you can go back and tell your client that this great press release replacement you've created isn't being used by a single reporter at the paper. They'll be thrilled about that.
Visitor Comments
Great point, Josh. On the other hand, whenever many of the smaller businesses in my area do a press release I never read about it in the local paper. I only see it come across an RSS feed from a online PR service. I suppose the lesson is: do both.
Posted by: Richard | July 29, 2005 12:26 PM