The News Release has evolved into a powerful electronic publishing tool in the Internet Age, however, many companies fail to exploit it as such. Before going into detail, let’s add some historical perspective to see how the News Release ascended to this point about a century after Ivy Lee, one of the first PR practitioners, issued the very first “press release” about a tragic accident on the Pennsylvania RR.

Up until the Internet soared to worldwide popularity in the 1990s, there was a lot of competition among technology companies to get their news published in business and trade publications. Editorial space was limited because it had to be paid for by advertising.  Publishers of print media typically aimed for a 60:40 ratio of advertising to editorial…that is 60 pages of advertising to pay for 40 pages of editorial. As the number of high-tech companies mushroomed beginning in the early 1970s, so also did the number of trade magazines grow to serve an expanding world market.  During this halcyon period of print publishing, trade magazines would receive thousands of news releases from high-tech firms either directly or via PR practitioners, whose number also grew significantly during this period.

Even with more print trade/business magazines, the competition for editorial space was still intense.  Of the thousands of news releases a magazine received each month, only a small fraction found their way beyond the trash can and into the editorial pages. Not surprisingly, those companies that were regular advertisers found that their news releases picked up more often than those companies not advertising.

Fast forward to the present where we now see print media unable to maintain the 60:40 ratio, and challenged to find ways to monetize their content on the Internet.  Effectiveness of pop-up ads remains debatable, while paid subscriptions to newsletters and sponsored webcasts/white papers are among some of the ways being pursued. Google has emerged as the great white hope with powerful search and analytic tools that enable traditional print media publishers to demonstrate how well their content attracts targeted audiences. Nonetheless, publishers of business/trade magazines are still trying to build Internet revenue models that can provide the profits they were used to getting in the old 60:40 days of print.

As print media continue to scramble for ways to monetize their content on the Internet, more and more companies are realizing that they can be their own publishers by instantaneously distributing their own news releases worldwide by using the services of a Business Wire or PR Newswire. While PR practitioners still strive to capture editorial space for their clients in trade/business media — be it print or on the Internet –they no longer rely solely on doing so. In fact, distribution and exposure via Business Wire is considered adequate for many of the releases issued by a company. Moreover, the use of a Business Wire gives the release the imprimatur of officially being published.  This along with the simultaneous posting of the release on the issuers web site serves to attract the targeted audience on a 24/7 basis.  Not to be overlooked, once published on the worldwide web in this way, the release via its key words will be “searchable” virtually forever…which should make companies consider how well their key messages in the news release will play over time.

The real beauty of the electronically published news release is that it can be immediately accessed by Internet visitors worldwide on a 24/7 basis.  Those who search on key words in the release will most likely fit within the target audience profile.  Moreover, the news release can contain a hyperlink that will take the reader to a “landing page” that provides more in-depth information than the news release imparted. In moving the release over the wire, it can also be accompanied by photographs, charts, graphs and even videos

Tags: advertising, corporate communications, news release, press release, publisher

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 10:19 am and is filed under Big-M Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.