75% of journalists find well-targeted, well-written news releases useful, according to a recent survey by Oriella PR Network, an alliance of 15 PR agencies from around the world.
As Jeremy Porter, author of Journalistics notes, this sort of information is pretty misleading. Do journalists prefer well-written, well-targeted press releases over poorly-written, off-topic ones? Well sure. Duh. But are press releases our preferred source for information? Do we really like getting them? Meh.
Porter suggests the following: “Take a break from this blog post and head over to one of the news wire services to read today’s headlines. Let me know when you find a release you’d like to write about it you were a journalist.”
Undoubtedly, the press release is in little danger of disappearing. But as Porter argues and I think most journalists would agree, there are better alternatives to getting our attention.
“You know what works better than a press release?” Porter asks. “Try having a real conversation with a journalist.” Pay attention to what topics we cover. Pay attention to how our publications work.
While a press release might cover every detail of your new product, service, hire, funding, or feature, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will generate a good story – or any story at all, for that matter. Porter offers some other tips that he believes will be more useful:
Blog
“Your blog is your own media outlet. Share everything you can think of about your industry, passion, company, products and services.” Of course, this doesn’t mean that your blog merely becomes one more place to post your press releases. We are avid RSS feed-readers here at ReadWriteWeb. So make your blog worth subscribing to.
Meet
Find us at conferences and networking events. Introduce yourself. Be yourself. “Try not to act like the stereotypical PR person,” advises Porter. “If you don’t know what I mean, you’re probably acting like one.”
Listen
Engage us via social media. You can learn a lot about us by listening and paying attention to what we say and writer, rather than simply pitching at us.
Avoid PR Spam
“If you send crap to journalists, they remember.” Honestly, if we haven’t responded to you after you’ve sent us the same announcement half-a-dozen times, it’s not because we’re super busy. It’s because sending us the same announcement half-a-dozen times is spam.
Do journalists appreciate clearly-written press releases? Of course. But are press releases the best way to generate media attention? Not necessarily.
