Call me old fashioned but I really like news releases.
I’m talking about the one to two page documents, usually written by PR people, that have a headline, subhead, dateline, the words ‘for immediate release’ (they still thrill me), a story (information and quotes), boilerplate and contact information.
The relevance of news releases has been much debated in the blogosphere with comments suggesting they’re passé, written in indecipherable ‘corporate-speak’, need to be revved up with more links and so on.
My take is that even in the hyper-conversational world of blogs and social media, news releases still have an important place and value.
They’re a great leveler of the corporate playing field. They help define the scope of a business communication, contain useful information that sets the stage for more dialogue (including facts about the company, names of spokespersons) and tell you who to call if you want to follow up.
Think of them as conversation starters. We put them out there and you can decide to participate, dig deeper or ignore us. You can also read between the lines and I would encourage you to do that too.
For more information on this post or to continue the discussion, contact…me.
