Envisioning 2.0

Tom Foremski’s suggestion that we kill off the press release has gotten a BIG reaction from the blogosphere. In his cleverly titled post Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die! Tom says:

“Press releases are nearly useless. They typically start with a tremendous amount of top-spin, they contain pat-on-the-back phrases and meaningless quotes. Often they will contain quotes from C-level executives praising their customer focus. They often contain praise from analysts, (who are almost always paid or have a customer relationship.) And so on…”

First, I’ll say that I agree with Tom – in part. I recently wrote an article urging communications professionals, corporations and others to kick the press release habit. In my article, I suggested that many press releases are unnecessary and people should try to find other ways to communicate relevant information to the media.

However, I do not advocate that we execute the press release. In fact, I think that — at times — press releases can be very useful documents, especially in healthcare.

Healthcare is highly complex and sometimes controversial. In many cases, journalists rely on press releases for the basic facts about the latest clinical trials, company earnings, important surveys, public health initiatives and a host of other topics. I can’t count the number of times healthcare media have asked me to send them a press release so that they can vet a story – on their own time.

Can you imagine journalists trying to make sense of these recent healthcare stories without a press release?

- The Women’s Health Initiative: Low Fat Diets Do Not Prevent Heart Disease

- Novo Nordisk: Despite Recent Reports, We Operate Ethically (The company released this statement, in part, to responsed to a recent New York Times article reporting that the company had paid off at least one Rite Aid pharmacist to switch patients to its medications.)

Now, I’m not saying that every healthcare-related press release is useful. However, I think that some of them serve a purpose and I couldn’t imagine communicating efficiently without them.

As for Tom asking press release writers to use Web 1.0 and 2.0 technologies like tags and links . . . Well, I think it’s a good idea, but that’s early adopter, cutting edge type stuff. It will be a long time before you get folks in corporate communications departments and other organizations comfortable with those types of add ons. I guess we’ll have to stick to rubbing two sticks together to ignite media interest in our stories.

I’ll end this post with a quote from Susan Getgood who writes Marketing Roadmaps. She had this to say about the press release:

“The practice of public relations is not defined by the press release. Yes, it has its problems, but these will not be solved by getting distracted by the press release red herring. We have to stay focused on the larger issues — how to improve the practice of PR, how to integrate the new media (without throwing out the baby), and ultimately, how to best serve the communication needs of our clients and companies, irrespective of the tool. Need a chisel, use a chisel. Need a mallet, use a mallet. And so on.”

Susan, I couldn’t agree more. (By the way, read Susan’s post on this issue. She’s got a great overview of other blog posts focusing on Tom’s article.)

This entry was posted on March 2, 2006 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Marketing Communications, Most Popular Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.