A fair amount of email from vendors and agencies includes that request, While it’s true that a fair number of sites and print pubs do post/print press releases verbatim or nearly so, that doesn’t mean it’s safe or strategic to lead with that assumption. Continue reading
Category Archives: Press Releases
Please brief analysts BEFORE offering journalist briefings
For product news stories in particular, many publications like (and some prefer or even insist on) a quote from an industry analyst (e.g., from Forrester, Gartner, IDC, Yankee, or one of the independents and smaller groups, like ESG), or other third-party expert. Continue reading
Great Moments In Unnecessarily Misleading, Off-Point Headlines
A recent press release on PR News wire had the headline:http://infolio-rg.ru
Small Businesses Agree: The Web is Dead
and led with “Wired had it right; the web is dying. [REDACTED]s small business customers have shown a distinct preference for managing their documents in the cloud with downloadable applications – both on the iPad and on their Windows desktops – vs. using their browsers.”
So, a, one company’s “opinion” (or its interpretation of one thing their customers are doing) equals this “fact”? (Here’s another possible interpretation of the data: “Our browser access is badly done.”) Continue reading
Keeping Press Release Lists On Topic
I wish press release aggregators would manage topics better.ir-leasing.ruhttp://mensclub24.ru/
Because one of my current gigs as a freelance technology writer is doing daily news stories (for InformationWeek SNB), I’m checking several of the press-release aggregating sites daily, like PR NewsWire For Journalists (media.prnewswire.com), and get several summary email messages from BusinessWire.com. Continue reading
Now this is a great press release…
CODEWEAVERS CEO NAMES HIMSELF “EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH” FOR 175TH CONSECUTIVE MONTH
Talk about “Rank hath its privileges” 🙂
Release The Facts! — No Name, No Price, No News, No Date = No Coverage
Along with feature articles, case histories, and interviews, at times I do news stories. For example, I’ve been doing about four a week for InformationWeek/SMB as of July 2010.
In general, I start with from a press release. Whenever possible, I follow up with a phone call (brokered usually by a PR person) to a company spokesperson to confirm or sort out the facts, and get some additional quotes or other information. Sometimes I also call an industry analyst, occasionally, if one’s available, a user, for additional quotes.
Many of the press releases have enough information to get me started.
But — depressingly — many don’t. Continue reading
Don’t Use Pop-Ups For Your Press Releases
The whole idea of posting press releases on your web site is so that the press can read them. Easily. And quickly. If a reporter is on deadline — or is doing a topical article, where one of your competitors would be just as acceptable as your company — you don’t want to inject unnecessary obstacles.
So I’m trying to look at press releases for this site — it doesn’t matter which — and while I’ve found the web page that has a list of them, and when I click on the links, nothing happens. Continue reading