A white paper just published by Business Wire titled “State of the Press Release” reinforces what I have posted in my previous blogs about the enduring power and growing flexibility of the news release.  The white paper aptly asserts the news release “has evolved into a Swiss army knife of communications tools that can address myriad of marketing and communications challenges.”

Some of the more interesting factoids presented in this white paper are:

1. Business Wire issued more than 288,000 press releases in 2009, and it estimates that a million more were sent out by other news services. One study suggests that a whopping 1.7 billion are sent out via email annually.

2. The news release has morphed into a multi-purpose marketing tool. When treated as an interactive web page with links, multimedia and tags, can perform and deliver results from multiple platforms and devices: the computer, the television or your mobile phone.

3. A decade ago, a news release would sit at the altar of journalists, hoping to be “picked up,” rewritten and published. Today, it’s likely to skip gatekeepers altogether and jump straight to the screens of target audiences.

4. As more and more journalistic gatekeepers have been downsized or laid off, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have assumed a role as community plaza where information is shared and exchanged. Skim any social networking site – or simply search the word “news release” on any of these sites, and you’ll find that releases account for a hefty percentage of content.

5. Treating your release like an interactive webpage can further amplify your message/content and its usefulness. Links to a chart, map or URLs that direct readers to deep content on your website can enhance the understanding of your product, service, company or point of view.

6. Business Wire asserts that one of the most important things you can do to get your press release to stand out is add a logo, graphic, photo, video or other multimedia element. Its internal research shows that press releases with any kind of graphic or multimedia generate 2.5 times as many clicks as text-only releases.

I recommend this white paper to anyone still wondering about the currency and power of the news release, which has come a long, long way since the first one was issued 104 years ago by Ivy Lee for the Pennsylvania Railroad (see my first blog entry  ”News Release Evolution: In The Beginning” for details on this historic event.)  This white paper can be downloaded at no charge at http://glomosome.businesswire.com/

Tags: Big-M Marketing, Business Wire, Communications, corporate communications, Marketing, news release, press release, Social Networking, strategic communications

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