The press release as a public relations tool is in transition. Before the World Wide Web, before everyone was online, press releases (or news releases) had a straightforward function: persuade a reporter, editor or producer to cover your story in some fashion. Sometimes that coverage was in the form of a fully reported story that the press release kicked off, sometimes the news release itself was printed more or less as is, and sometimes a highly edited and shortened form of the release made it into the paper.

These days, however, press releases are increasingly published as stand-alone content online. They show up on web sites and in online news feeds, thanks to services such as BusinessWire and PRNewswire. More and more journalists, under pressure to produce exclusive content that provides more value to their readers and audiences, will first ask “who else have you sent this to” or “where else has this news appeared” before doing anything with a release.

Most of the time, if you want to get news coverage a well-honed pitch to the right journalist at the right news outlet is your best bet. But a pitch is a different thing from a news release. It’s not intended for distribution beyond individual journalists and is designed to earn fully reported coverage, not to be published as is or revised.

Too many people still think PR means “press release,” so I think it’s time we rethought the press release, and other forms of content that public relations pros like me spend time trying to get out. It’s time to more clearly define the role of the press release in the public relations ecosystem.

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