“The press release is dead, someone please tell the clients,” Sally Saville Hodge writes for Marketing Profs.
However, while Sally is smart to call for smarter media pitching, she fails to mention weblogs or RSS. I say blogs are the new press releases.
Yup, that’s right. That’s what I feel. Do I think press releases are dead? No. I think companies will rely on them for years – especially for big news like mergers. But increasingly, you’re going to see corporations – perhaps smaller firms at first – gravitate towards blogs and RSS for distributing news rather than spending hundreds of dollars on the wire services. Yahoo’s already moving in this direction. Here are three reasons why blogs are the new black …
1) RSS Will be Everywhere – By 2007 RSS will be considered an official disclosure point because you will instantaneously reach everyone at once. Today we all have a free wire distribution service on our desktops, thanks to RSS
2) The Humans Will Rise to Kill the Machines – People want the facts but they also want to hear the news in a human voice, not from an automaton – “we are pleased” quotes won’t cut it anymore, sorry. And the phrase “today announced” will one day fall by the wayside
3) Feedback, Feedback, Feedback – People can’t really leave a comment on press releases, but on blog posts they sure can. Companies will crave feedback and people will always want to dish it
What’s your take? Ya think I am mad? Let’s debate this because it sure is an important topic for the PR biz. What is the future of the press release? To my journalist readers, please weigh in. We need to hear your voice.
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
