It seems anymore when you see blogs vs. whatever, blogs win. I subscribe to the MarketingSherpa newsletter and in it are discussed 5 strategies to deal with the dwindling importance of the until-now legendary press release. I encourage you to read the other four, but here is the first one, blogs:
So, last week when I was in a meeting with Bob Evans, CMP Media’s Editorial Director & Senior VP, I asked him pointblank, “Do reporters read press releases anymore?”
“In some cases releases can still be helpful for short quick online news items” he told me. “But mostly, if everyone’s got it on Google News, what’s the point? I may use a phone number or a stat for a bigger story, but press releases are not the response devices they used to be.”
How do you catch reporters’ attention in the Internet age? Here are five suggestions Bob and I discussed:
#1. Blogs
If you’re pitching a trend story (which Bob says many journalists love), try including links to several independent blogs to back your assertions up. Helps prove you didn’t invent the trend just to get your CEO quoted, and there’s some genuine audience interest in the topic. Also better than citing a direct competitor’s story (few journalists get ahead by writing me-too stuff).
You can also use an internally produced company blog to garner some press attention. Bob said, “It could function as effectively or more effectively than a press release right now. However, canned contrived, controlled messages will draw very little interest.”
Bob strongly recommends you allow and actively encourage interactive blog replies. If a reporter sees an active — non-edited — discussion attached to blog posts, they’re much more likely to respond. Best postings would be from your marketplace.
It seems the authenticity and unfiltered, unspun (is that a word? I think it is!) nature of most blogs confer countless benefits, and this is another. The unique properties of internet discourse and dialogue are inexorably cannibalizing and reinventing nearly everything, press releases included.
I myself hardly venture onto news sites, anymore, and unless there is compelling video I want to experience on a nice big screen, I don’t watch newscasts. I get most of my news from the blogosphere. It seems more and more people are doing the same. Savvy journalists should understand and utilize RSS feeds in this new world, rather than rely on old-fashioned press releases.
