Too many firms say too much about too little and miss the news that counts. In a hollowed-out media, the press release is overdue a rethink.
“If you’ve got nothing to say, say nothing.” Not my words, but those of the inimitable Right Honourable Jim Hacker, the fictional prime minister of the United Kingdom in perhaps that country’s greatest comedy series of the 1980s, Yes, Prime Minister. That clips from the show appear often on social media feeds is a sign of its prescience and continued relevance on issues ranging from European integration, defence, response to crises and international diplomacy, to dealing with the press. The quote that opens this article was just that, advice for a junior civil servant on how to deal with the press.
It’s a line that I have long used in a media workshop I have run for (primarily, but not exclusively) tech start-ups. It’s a workshop that was born in large part out of frustration with both the shabby selection of press releases and media announcements that fill my inbox most days, and the absence of a decent release when a firm might actually be in a position to say something worthwhile. Hacker closes his own short piece of advice with the words, “If you do have something to say, say it, and say it well.”
My own experience suggests that far too many firms are still getting both parts wrong. Too many send out meaningless communiques announcing the most minor of milestones (that interest nobody), while too many miss telling the world about major developments (that are likely to be picked up and reported at some length). The former issue arises when firms believe that they are far more important than they actually are, the latter when they fail to recognise that they are sitting on gold, or simply believe that traditional press announcements are old hat and demeaning of a cutting-edge tech start-up. “Stick something on LinkedIn, that should do it.” No, it won’t.
The reason for that is the sheer number of spaces that need to be filled with content, which is now higher than at any time in history and growing exponentially. It matters not how niche your particular niche might be, there will be several online publications dedicated to it, and all of them want good stories to fill their pages. The press release, then, is not dead, but it does need reinventing.
The trouble with declaring the press release dead is that often, the same people making the claim are those who were never all that good at writing a decent one in the first place. In truth, a well-written, original press release announcing something genuinely newsworthy is still likely to travel much further than pretty much anything a founder posts on their own social media channels (unless, of course, that founder is a household name. Most aren’t). When Nick Davies wrote his now seminal Flat Earth News back in 2008, he had researchers at Cardiff University trace the origins of 2,000 stories in the UK press. They found that, “just 12 per cent were wholly composed of material researched by reporters. With eight per cent of the stories, they just couldn’t be sure. The remaining 80 per cent were wholly, mainly or partially constructed from second-hand material, provided by news agencies and by the public relations industry.” Davies called the phenomenon churnalism, and it is a phenomenon which has been put into overdrive by the development of AI tools that churn out slop at an alarming pace. The churn, alas, keeps multiplying.
In the United States (unlikely to be an exception), there are now something like six public relations specialists for every reporter (the ratio was two to one in 1980). The number of journalists keeps falling, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics counting about 49,300 in 2024. It’s likely to have fallen further since.
Your story, in your words
Which brings me back to Hacker. The first half of his advice, the part about saying nothing, is the half most firms need and the one they most commonly ignore. The second half is where the reinvention is badly needed, in that if you do have something to say, say it in a form the person at the other end (the reporter) can actually use. That reporter is likely busy, under-resourced, working to incredibly tight deadlines (the days of reporters being given weeks or months to work on one story, with very few exceptions, have long gone), and increasingly likely to be using AI tools (watermarks or not) to meet their targets. Some 82 per cent of journalists told Muck Rack this year that they use AI in their work. Even more, 86 per cent, will take at least a few stories from pitches and press releases, but (importantly for firms looking for coverage) a whopping 88 per cent ignore those that are not relevant. Sending a press release about developments at a tech firm creating bespoke software for the healthcare sector to a publication that reviews the latest cinema releases is not a winning strategy, and yet it’s one that is applied all too often. The problem, arguably, is that while it has never been easier to knock out a release, they are being sent to the wrong people or simply getting lost in a vast ocean of AI slop. Press releases have never been more needed, but only if they are good, and relevant. (And, I might add, written by a human being).
So what does a reinvented release look like? In brief, it should read like a story a reporter could file without too much extra work (because, frequently, they will not have the time to do much extra work). It should carry the headline you ideally want the journalist to run with, and include newsworthy data and information, ideally in quotable form from a real human being saying something relevant and true, not simply a founder or chief executive telling the world that they are ‘thrilled’ or ‘delighted’ or ‘excited to announce’. (If they really want to, they can do that on LinkedIn). And it goes to a curated group of people who actually cover your niche, not the thousands who do not.
Jim Hacker, of course, was being cynical, as he often was. For a politician, having nothing to say is a blessing, but for a firm sitting on a genuine breakthrough, it is a waste. Done properly, the press release still does something most LinkedIn posts cannot, which is put your story, in your words, in front of people on a source that they already trust (or at least read). The rest can go on announcing their minor milestones to nobody. Say nothing, or (better still), say something, and say it well.
Photo: Dreamstime.