The Future of Press Releases

As the world continues to be changed by advancements in technology and the increased usage of the Internet as a communication medium, bloggers continue to crave more information in a timely manner. Traditionally, bloggers write about products, their personal lives, perspectives on various world events or represent a company and promote their own agenda without having to go through the process of getting the traditional media interested in their story. Often, journalists had their own blog and would provide their perspective through this medium. It had been believed that as more journalists turned to the blogosphere, the methods in which stories were fed to them would have to change to meet the urgency demands of the blogs.

In an article written in this week’s PR Weekly by Mark Evans Tech , the notion of the social media press release was discussed. It made sense that to satisfy the demands of these bloggers, current information be delivered in the same method that it would be transmitted to audiences. The social media press release at one point in time, was believed to be the next up and coming trend to hit the world of PR. Not only would this new trend eliminate wasteful paper trails, it would provide journalists and reporters with the opportunity to gather time-sensitive information in a convenient and interactive method.

It is argued that although this method was seen as convenient for bloggers and profitable for PR firms, the trend never caught-on due to the fact that the press release is considered an ‘old’ method, regardless of whether it is published on paper or electronically. If this is the case, if it’s true that the very people that PR professionals spend hours writing these releases for, the journalists and bloggers, aren’t paying attention. Why do we spend so much time learning how to perfect this ‘ancient art’? Is it as Mark Evans argues, are relationships and the pitch that much MORE important? Or, as more and more companies and journalists choose blogs as the medium from which to communicate to their audiences will the social media press release live up to its potential and become a staple in PR practices?