Press releases used to be the mainstay of any public relations operation. They were an organization's main outreach vehicle. They were the tool of choice as a way to generate greater publicity, connect with specific publics or make specific announcements. No more. Those days are gone. But this is not to say they are no longer a key weapon in any communication operation's arsenal. The difference is they are now used more sparingly. There are several primary reasons for this: the rise of social media and the dwindling news space in newspapers.
I think back to my first job in public relations. It was at a community college located a few miles north of Annapolis, Maryland. I was hired as their first assistant coordinator of community relations but was soon elevated to the coordinator position after my boss retired. Though I had a secretary, I was basically a one-person operation in terms of coming up with ways to promote this growing institution and work with the local media. My primary weapon was the press release. Each week, I churned out between 20-25 of them. Several local newspapers actually started setting aside full pages on which to print my communiques. Their generosity made me look awfully good.
Since then, many newspaper have folded. The ones that continue to operate do so with leaner staffs. Their news holes are smaller. And they are more dependent upon advertisers than ever. Rarely are they content to print verbatim press releases they do receive. Instead, press releases are viewed more as news tips on which they can follow up. PR operations use twitter, blogs and facebook to share information with their publics. Consequently, their communiques, generally, are shorter in length, punchier in style. Press releases, much like the industry that both created them and rode on their wings, are no longer what they used to be.
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