Fact Sheets

When the profession of public relations began to take flight in the first third of the twentieth century, one of the primary "weapons" in the arsenal of these professional communicators was the press release. It is this communication tool that many practitioners used to promote their clients and organizations. Specifically, they would these communiques to local and regional newspapers with the intent of having those media outlets run part or all of them. Gaining publicity via the press release then and for many years afterward proved to be a successful public relations strategy. They were vehicles of communication that could satisfy clients while helping meet the needs of the press to fill up their pages with an array of news and announcements.


As the twentieth century progressed so, too, did efforts by public relations practitioners to identify more sure-fire ways to promote their clients. At the same time, the media, while maintaining its independence, faced growing challenges ranging from drops in circulation and/or viewership to the rising cost of production. Revenue via advertising help them maintain their separation or independence. Also, keeping the staff of their staffs at lean numbers helped and continue to help maintain a reasonable level of financial stability. Through all this evolution in both public relations and journalism, the status of the press release began changing as well.


Reporters and editors continued their interest in those communiques, but instead began using them more as news tips rather complete articles to publish or broadcast. Information or facts within the releases rather than the prose of the stories themselves emerged as the key points of interest for journalists. As a result of this shift, fact sheets - that communique that emphasizes facts or data rather than full-fledged articles - in essence stepped center stage as a main communication tool for publicists. Thus, more than ever it is the fact sheet that represents the go-to publicity tool for those in public relations.