Press releases are an enormous hoax. They’re written by people who pretend to be excited and received by people who pretend to be interested. It’s time for a change. Strumpette posted a really detailed and challenging critique of the PR industry and this addresses a subset of it – the terrible standard of writing in the industry. (This piece was first published in my column for [tag]Visual Thesaurus[/tag].)
In the bizarre love triangle between companies, PR firms and the [tag]media[/tag], nobody wins except the PR firms who get paid whether the press releases are read or not.
In my former life as full-time journalist I received (and ignored) thousands. I’ve seen editors scan through a hundred email press releases in five minutes and delete the lot. Before that, as a CEO, I paid tens of thousands of pounds for shiny press releases that got us no coverage whatsoever.
Expectations are low and cynicism is high. I think it’s time to re-evaluate the whole concept and go back to basics.
Why are they so dreadful?
Press releases suffer from committee writing that turns steak into baby food. Not only that but marketing people compensate for lack of bite by adding hype words, jargon and self-important throat clearing.
The worst sin is “Frankenquoting.” Here’s an example:
“Nortel has established a legacy in innovation and will continue to push the envelope in delivering faster and more efficient wireless capabilities with industry leaders like QUALCOMM,” said Jean-Luc Jezouin, vice-president, GSM/UMTS product line management, Nortel.
Nobody talks to their friends like this but PR people think that they can excuse purple prose by pretending that someone with a big title said it.
Press releases could also be improved by banning the use of the following words: empower, solution, best-of-breed, flexible, powerful, cost-effective, ROI, value, strategic… Well, you can guess the rest.
How to make them better?
Here’s my recipe for better press releases. I’d like to think that any company that adopts this approach will stand out from the pack so much that they will be overwhelmed with gratitude and coverage. Your mileage may differ.
- Write descriptive headlines that explain why the story is interesting. If you can’t, it isn’t. So don’t put out a press release.
- Keep them short and factual. 250 words should be the upper limit. By all means link to a website that contains more detailed information.
- Make the first sentence and the first paragraph work for their living.
- Always include contact details. Many don’t. What’s the point of that?
- If you quote anyone, do a real interview and pick a good quote. Customers and independent experts are more interesting that company notables.
- One writer, one subeditor, one proofreader, one lawyer. Everyone else has an opinion but not a veto.
- Try writing a letter to your grandmother explaining why the news in the press release is important. Bingo, there’s your opening paragraph.
- Alternatively try telling a story. What, who, where, when, how and why.
- Make sure you redact any version control history from Word documents. There’s usually a better story for journalists in the stuff you removed at the last minute than in what you actually wrote.
- Try a new medium such as podcasts or blogs. If nothing else it will force you to abandon the tired old press release template.
Lastly I have a message for PR people everywhere. Please don’t call journalists twenty minutes after you email a [tag]press release[/tag] to see if they have received it. What you call “selling in the story,” journalists call “wasting time.”
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I love your blog, Matthew.
I read almost all your posts. Entries of this nature, however, just depress the hell out of me.
I think all I can do after reading this and Strumpette’s post is sigh.
What’s a young PR professional to do? How am I to conduct my work with people I know, deep down somewhere, hate me and resent what I do?
I don’t have an answer here; I’m just rambling.
Good post, though.
This one is deliberately provocative so don’t be too depressed! I suspect that if you’re reading this and reacting as positively as you do (and having seen your blog, I think this is true) you’re already on the right track.
There are a handful of PR people that I like and respect and I am not prepared to damn the whole profession because bits of it are bad.
The good news for people who do a better job is that, given the lousy average, it should be possible to really excel and shine just by being a bit better than the norm.
love it
i was chatting with a friend about this only last week and found some good coverage on it at http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=HotIssues.PressReleases
When 10 Downing Street starts podcasting you know the PR landscape is changing. Are they noticing the revolution though or will it sweep by them?
Interesting Steve. I love that Wiki. Another thing for the to-do list I think. Note to self: learn about wikis. I’ve been getting an email feed from Number 10 on my Cabinet Office iPAQ phone thingy for a while now and they’ve also got an RSS feed. It’s not so much a presidential Prime Minister as a PR Prime Minister. But I’m sure he doesn’t roll his own XML like we do!
Great post. I think I’m going to link to it in my blog this morning.
I stumbled onto your blog awhile ago and have been reading with quite a bit of interest.
For what it’s worth, I love straight talk that’s loaded with some usefulness. So many blogs are interesting, but not that many are useful.
Thanks a lot!
Matthew,
Your “releases for humans” advice is spot-on!! As a PR practitioner in New York, I couldn’t agree more about when “not” to put out a release. I try to tell my clients repeatedly (sometimes with success, sometimes not) that many stories should only be pitched using a pithy email pitch, targeting a journalist directly.
But, then again, I’ve also been a freelance writer/reporter for much of my PR career as well. So, maybe that insight helps to guide me.
I loved the comments about clients taking the “steak” out of a release and turning it into mashed carrots. Just had that experience with a healthcare client that took a good, newsy lead, buried it, and proceeded to litter the surrounding whitespace with superfluous puffery!
Ah, another day at the PR office!
Keep up the great blog entries.
Signed,
A fan from the States
Nice and informative article thanks. Any advice for getting PRs published if the press organisation deems the subject to clash with their own interests?
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