The Embargo Breaks Part Deux: Is a Press Release News?
May 14 2008 
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The past two weeks have undoubtedly been rough ones if you are a public relations rep. There are A-list bloggers bandying about terms like blacklist and threatening to never cover another pitch. And I’m sure there are PR reps who are very upset and probably quaking in their boots worrying about how on earth they will ever get anything covered by the A-listers.
Here’s a hint: they are lying when they claim that their lives would be blissful without another pitch. They can give you rules and regulations and more special orders for how they want to receive the information you have than Meg Ryan ordering a salad in When Harry Met Sally, but if there were no pitches, they’d have nothing to cover.
Nothing.
Press Releases Are Necessary
If every PR rep suddenly said "You know what? The heck with all of you. We won’t send you pitches if you are going to be picky about it," and only pitched bloggers who didn’t complain, what would all these sites have to regurgitate for their 20 articles a day? Not a darn thing. Not a SINGLE thing. That news comes from press releases and pre-embargo press kits, and if that well suddenly dried up, so would the glut of posts. We can talk about social media press releases and Twitpitches and anything else until we are blue in the face, but if PR reps sent words written on a dirty paper napkin in catsup and the A-listers wanted that news, they’d cover it.
Where PR Ranks
Need proof? TechCrunch actually did the math for us with their "Blogger Board" on CrunchBase. I’ll be honest; it took a pitch in my mail box to notice it, but if you look closely, number 22 on that list is Business Wire. Business Wire! The press release feed ranks at number 22 for Techmeme headline appearances. That’s higher than Scoble (#23). Higher than Mashable (#29). And then at number 31? We have more press releases, this time from PR Newswire.
Promotional Pieces
I may be old-school, but I don’t generally think of a press release as a news item. It’s a promotional item. It may contain some facts that are news, such as information about a launch, but whether you are counting the press release itself or a paraphrase of it, it shouldn’t be counted as anything more than a promotional piece. The fact that two wire services for press releases show up in the all-time Techmeme leaderboard should demonstrate just how dependent the tech blogs are on the information in them. And while we can watch FriendFeed and Twitter light up like Christmas trees kvetching about PR reps being annoying, don’t you think a lot of those same whingers would be flailing without them?
Hi there, I’m Cyndy Aleo-Carreira, your friendly guest poster today on SheGeeks. When not guest-posting to spread the love everywhere, I’m an Editor and Writer for Profy. In addition to the blog, we recently launched a social blogging platform of our own. You can read the first part of this two-parter at The Embargo Breaks: Regurgitation of a Press Release.
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It's clearly a form of Symbiosis. The question is Who's the host and who's the parasite? I'm sure the News Sites feel the same way about bloggers, they woudn't get the traffic they have without us. It's the same with PR….imho.
Good post. As someone who has worked both ends of the stick, so to speak, I agree that Press Releases are promo items. In the best case, PR reps control the spin by getting some of what's included passed on word for word. In the worst case, it gets trashed. As a journalist, I relied on Press Releases for information and leads, but not substance. They are a useful tool for both clients and recipients, in my opinion.
In an age where everyone has a microphone, authority matters.
People today want to get as close to the 'truth' as possible.
Press Releases are not only necessary but more important than ever because it gives the company the chance to say exactly what they want. The audience can then also read all the opinions (bloggers) on it and decide if the comments in the pr release are valid or not.
Jeez, isn't a blog nothing but one big p.r. release for the person writing it?
Ahhh…a nice break from travel super-search back to my social media gfriends!
We just launched UpTake today. We had some GREAT conversations with TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, SearchEngineLand and other big blogs. They did real reporting. Then there were some other blogs (won't mention names) that didn't even want to talk and then they did what you mentioned above. I don't mind because its good publicity for us. But what about the small blogger?
I have a suggestion. Small bloggers are short on time and resources. And they need to provide a more distinctive take in order to get noticed. Here's what I think works great: do an email interview. Example: I'm friends with a travel blogger Claude Benard of Les Explorers. I let him know about the embargo and the press release. Instead of just using that, he came back with an email with lots of questions. It forced me to think and write back a response to him. what's unfair is the big blog got on TechMeme and Les Explorers did not.
http://www.lesexplorers.com/50226711/uptake_lau...
He can ask tough questions, and we can go back and forth. This can result in a more interesting and differentiated post from what other people can pick up off the release.
A variant of this is to do it over IM.
After the noise dies down I'm going to be posting about and linking to the bloggers I learned the most from. Frankly, I learned a lot more from Claude and some other guys I talked to than I would talking with Scoble. that's why I didn't even bother to grab 5 min. of his attention on this launch. And I #twitpitched Stowe Boyd and we never connected, but I don't really care (although his blog is interesting) because there are plenty of other mid size and smaller bloggers that can help me up my game! and the Pitchmeme continues…
End Rant!
Oh god, I sure hope it's not. As a blogger, I expose myself every day, warts and all. I make mistakes. I like some stuff, I hate some other stuff. A press release is a lot of sunshine and happy thoughts and unicorns.
Couldn't agree more re. “symbiosis”
Thank you. ITA. PR reps must be beside themselves with glee when they see releases paraphrased and put out as an article.
Solactech, you said it much more succinctly than I. I don't think there is an exact host/parasite analogy, however, because that assumes one can survive without the other (the host). A lot of these rants recently would have you think that the PR reps are the parasites and the A-listers the hosts, but that obviously isn't the case.
And here I thought unicorns was only for 12 year old girls and Mariah Carey. :)
I think people who are professional about their blogging (i.e., A-listers/B-listers and the like) realizes that there blog represents them as individuals to the outside world.
They take the same liberties and cautions in what they write just like a company would do on a press release.
But as I said before, what makes the press release important is that it is coming directly from the company unfiltered. Or at least as unfiltered as the blogs who talk about them.
You did see Mike Arrington's “F you” to Wired via Twitter, right? And the regular bitchmemes? And… And.. And… I'm not speaking for all bloggers, but I definitely think that press releases are far from transparent. The only difference between me blogging personally and me blogging professionally is the amount of cussing I do. I have a tragic habit of cussing like a sailor in real life, and I try to avoid that when blogging under my own name. In case anyone wants to hire me and all. I'd compare my CV to a press release, but never my blog.
Transparency is relative. And we're not really talking about transparency.
When you decided not to curse on your pro blog you were making a conscious decision (like the writers of a press release) to present a certain image to the public.
What makes your blog special is that it's coming from you. It's what you think, (or decide to tell us what you think).
If I wanted to learn about what you were up to I would rather hear it from you even though I knew it was censored (no cursing) than from another source (a blogger) even if they said you really curse like a sailor, because you are the only legitimate authority of you.
I think most people feel the same about press releases. Especially in today's age of information overload.
I am going to stop now because I hate losing fights to girls.
It gives my daughter and ex-wives to much glee.
I *hated* writing our press release. I couldn't figure out why it was so painful to write. On the other hand, I like writing blog posts. WHY are press releases a pain and blog posts fun? Anyone know the answer to this?
Here's my dual answer: At the office, I interact with press releases all day long. My name goes out on top of a lot of them. In that world, they are a necessity.
BUT … in the blog world, I'd usually prefer not to get them for a few reasons. 1) I know the story isn't exclusive, so since I'm not as big as others, my noise will be muted (See the Seesmic/Disqus announcement from today). 2) It's more fun to trade e-mail with the people behind a service, or to do a legit review. The press release doesn't usually add value for me in this space. All it provides is the timing for any embargo.
“succinctly” had to look that word up…Thanx
OMG, I'm so sorry! I've been lectured about that many times… crossword puzzle nut/word nerd and I TRY to only use normal, every day stuff, but I'm also the person whose kid was calling lobsters “crustaceans” at two years old. ;) I pay less attention to what I'm saying in comments sections.
LOL Chartreuse. Ex-wives? ;)
I edit only my language in professional settings, but I think what I'm trying to say is that a press release doesn't give you any hint of a company's soft underbelly. What features are missing at launch that users will be looking for that you may have plans to launch in the future. You may have such a crappy revenue model (or none at all) that users would be reluctant to move over to your app knowing that its demise may be not too far off in the future. When I'm blogging, I get poked all the time in the comments, and have that exchange (like here) where I can respond. Without that conversation, which the blog is designed for, but press releases aren't, it's just surface-level. I'm also pretty blunt in revealing my biases (like my recent Viewzi review where I pointed out I've hated every other visual search engine and was going in expecting to hate Viewzi too).
Louis, to quote Corvida, you are a mess. I'd go so far as to say a hot mess on this one. You generate press releases all day at the day job, but hate them as a blogger. There's a psychic disconnect there! In ALL worlds they are a necessity, but in my world (and it's pretty here!) a press release should be a conversation starter. It shouldn't be spewed out as an article, but it should say “Hey, we have this great company, and we think you'd like it for these reasons, and we'd love to talk to you more about it.” It shouldn't feed quotes from the CEO for doling out into articles masquerading as news.
OMG, I'm so sorry! I've been lectured about that many times… crossword puzzle nut/word nerd and I TRY to only use normal, every day stuff, but I'm also the person whose kid was calling lobsters “crustaceans” at two years old. ;) I pay less attention to what I'm saying in comments sections.
LOL Chartreuse. Ex-wives? ;)
I edit only my language in professional settings, but I think what I'm trying to say is that a press release doesn't give you any hint of a company's soft underbelly. What features are missing at launch that users will be looking for that you may have plans to launch in the future. You may have such a crappy revenue model (or none at all) that users would be reluctant to move over to your app knowing that its demise may be not too far off in the future. When I'm blogging, I get poked all the time in the comments, and have that exchange (like here) where I can respond. Without that conversation, which the blog is designed for, but press releases aren't, it's just surface-level. I'm also pretty blunt in revealing my biases (like my recent Viewzi review where I pointed out I've hated every other visual search engine and was going in expecting to hate Viewzi too).
Louis, to quote Corvida, you are a mess. I'd go so far as to say a hot mess on this one. You generate press releases all day at the day job, but hate them as a blogger. There's a psychic disconnect there! In ALL worlds they are a necessity, but in my world (and it's pretty here!) a press release should be a conversation starter. It shouldn't be spewed out as an article, but it should say “Hey, we have this great company, and we think you'd like it for these reasons, and we'd love to talk to you more about it.” It shouldn't feed quotes from the CEO for doling out into articles masquerading as news.
LOL Chartreuse. Ex-wives? ;)
I edit only my language in professional settings, but I think what I'm trying to say is that a press release doesn't give you any hint of a company's soft underbelly. What features are missing at launch that users will be looking for that you may have plans to launch in the future. You may have such a crappy revenue model (or none at all) that users would be reluctant to move over to your app knowing that its demise may be not too far off in the future. When I'm blogging, I get poked all the time in the comments, and have that exchange (like here) where I can respond. Without that conversation, which the blog is designed for, but press releases aren't, it's just surface-level. I'm also pretty blunt in revealing my biases (like my recent Viewzi review where I pointed out I've hated every other visual search engine and was going in expecting to hate Viewzi too).
Louis, to quote Corvida, you are a mess. I'd go so far as to say a hot mess on this one. You generate press releases all day at the day job, but hate them as a blogger. There's a psychic disconnect there! In ALL worlds they are a necessity, but in my world (and it's pretty here!) a press release should be a conversation starter. It shouldn't be spewed out as an article, but it should say “Hey, we have this great company, and we think you'd like it for these reasons, and we'd love to talk to you more about it.” It shouldn't feed quotes from the CEO for doling out into articles masquerading as news.