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The revolution will be press released

September 20th, 2006 by mhjones

I told a gathering of marketing and PR types at an AIIA lunch today that the press release (and the press conference for that matter) was as good as dead.

Ironically, I came across this press release today from a group of Silicon Valley types who are reinventing the press release. Obviously you’d hope that future missives from this group will be disseminated through non-traditional means?

Tagged: Marketing
Comments:

6 Responses to “The revolution will be press released”

  1. Steven Noble Says:
    September 20th, 2006 at 4:28 pm

    I thought they did?

    See the link in the release through to http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/multivu/25419/

    Pity if that wasn’t the version forwarded to media…

  2. Mark Jones Says:
    September 20th, 2006 at 6:56 pm

    Good point Steven. To clarify, I’m looking for the day when the multimedia/2.0 version becomes the norm. The one I saw was the traditional version.
    It’s an interesting project…

  3. Trevor Cook Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 10:23 am

    What evidence is there that the media release or media conference is dead?
    There will be supplementation and sometimes a round-table discussion will be a better idea then a formal media Q&A but I doubt the release as such will ever disappear.
    I think people often confuse the delivery method with the content and its purpose.
    If I put up a blog post announcing something or putting my organisation’s view on something then that is as good as issuing an ‘all media’ release.
    Especially, if you follow up with an email drawing some key influencers attention to it, which seems to be common practice.
    In fact, the media release will only die when newspapers cease to be about delivering news

  4. Mark Jones Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 11:36 am

    Trevor, now I did say “as good as dead”. Social media is creating an opportunity for the delivery of rich forms of communication from companies and individuals. I commented on the panel that the basic desire of a company to communicate news is not dead. Just the idea that firing off press releases as the primary vehicle has past its prime. Just look at Google - seems to me most of its big news these days is announced on the corporate blog. Sure, that’s done in a controlled manner (I’m assuming product managers get permission before posting an announcement?). But the result is an immediate population of the content across blogs around the world, and then into newspapers. That’s to say nothing of the instant conversation/feedback loop it starts.
    In Australia, we’re still way behind this curve, like so many things in IT. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
    Finally, a personal example. I read Bloglines each morning *before* my email inbox where the press releases live (and get very quickly deleted).

  5. Simon Sharwood Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 11:48 am

    For the last three and half years I have asked rather insistently NOT to be sent press relases.
    I do not feel it has diminished my effectiveness.
    But I feel it has diminised PR companies’. Once you ask them not to contact you with press releases, they pretty much stop contacting you at all!
    So much for the proactive development and pitching of story ideas they all profess to practise.

  6. David Phillips FCIPR Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 8:38 pm

    The evidence is all about us.

    A lot of blogs are news based and fortunately pitching these blogs is not very effective (yet).

    As newspapers get more savvy about online solutions, the press release and press conference have limited application and the ‘phone round’ is going to be really tough.
    Why take a phone call when the New Media Release has all the background information?

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