Death of the Issues pitch, Revenge of the press release

My colleague Bennie tweeted a story from Ragan's yesterday - Don't Trash Press Releases Yet - which reminded me of a post I have been considering.  Since I have been scooped, I might as well go out with my post now, by adding another chapter in my PR Death Watch series.

For all the talk of the death of the press release, it is actually the press release and hard new story that is enduring, and edging out other types of content - and making tactics like soft news story and features pitching increasingly irrelevant in the process.

I refer to my own experience as evidence. Also, I spoke with representatives from the major press release distribution services, and they said that in general they have not seen a letup in the volume of press releases in recent years..

For further validation, one can also take a look at the Techmeme leaderboard, which tracks the sources generating the greatest amount of buzz in tech.  For the most part, these are news organizations and news-driven blogs, not sites that focus on extensive analysis or opinion.

There are several forces at work here.  The first is the enduring power of institutions.  One need look no further than the Jay Leno saga as an example.  What seemed like a bold experiment failed because late night talk occurs at late, night no exceptions.  There's a whole system at work that reinforces this truism - viewing habits, diminishing draw of network programming in general, what else is on at these hours, etc.

Similarly, the creation, distribution and coverage of news is an ingrained institution. There is an ecosystem that reinforces this, and thus drives demand for press releases.  Put simply, press releases are an accepted way of packaging newsworthy info (or info that aspires to this level of noteworthiness).  Inhabitants of the ecosystem include marketing departments, PR firms, press release distribution services, Websites, SEC, consumers and investors.

Another factor is something I call Info Darwinism (also refer to ideas behind the science of memetics).  The clamor of the Web, and the burgeoning growth of various channels of info forces us to be selective and focus on Info with an Edge, i.e. hard info;  the info that jumps to the top of the Web heap, rises above the din and grabs our attention.  This could be hard news, it could be rumor, gossip, easily digestible but fun and attention grabbing snippets, info that relates to YOU and your concerns.

It is all about survival of the "fittest" info. The crowd applies their wisdom and filter, deciding what info is hot and what is not.  They consume the info and share it, elevating its rank and bringing it to wider recognition in the process.

Comments

[Naomi Most]

Press releases are definitely structures for ideas that help those ideas get copied. In that sense, they are more "fit" in the ecosystem of ideas.

But press releases are like mayflies: extremely successful for 24 to 72 hours. They succeed in the market for NOVEL ideas, but do not (usually) survive in the marketplace of USEFUL or BEAUTIFUL or [insert other qualifier] ideas.

Opinion pieces often have exceedingly long lives -- there are blog articles I've seen get picked up by aggregators and Twitter users many months, even years, after they've "hit". So deep content still has great value even if we are simply talking about replication potential.

If anything, we're not seeing the "death" or reinvigoration of anything in particular -- merely the correct purposing of these tropes.

[Alex]

If nothing else, they serve as an excellent foundation for your pitch. I've had no problems using them with my audiences--they appreciate having the info rather than having to dig for it. They also do have a life on the web. I have clients who still get traffic/inquiries from releases I posted early last year.