News releases: new school and old school

Edelman just introduced another version of Todd Defren’s original Web 2.0 news release, or social media release, and a tool to create one. It’s not very new or innovative and aesthetically it can be much improved. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that a large PR agency such as Edelman is rolling this stuff out. I expect it to be shaped up considerably over the course of the following weeks or months.

But what irks me especially is the fact that the new tool has “Pushbutton, Fill-In-The-Blank Ease.” Are they selling it on the home shopping network? I am concerned about the risk that people who don’t know what they are doing use this fill-in-the-blank ease to create drab and pointless releases. You don’t see any graphic designers work with the MS Publisher Wizard to make a brochure, so I am a little concerned about the Press Release Wizard.

The release gives room for comments, admiringly not censoring negativity, and as one of the commentators said: “Sounds like we’re trying to spoon feed them [journalists] baby food rather than give them a key to the garden” but, she agreeably adds “that said, I believe it’s critically important that our PR industry continue to evolve not only how we deliver the message (news releases) but also how we make it available to media 24/7.”

In a quote “attributable to Rick Murray, President, me2revolution” he states that “we believe that just as brands are beginning to cede control to consumers, so too must PR practitioners start ceding control of messages and stories to both mainstream and citizen journalists.”

I don’t think it is a case of voluntarily ceding control; citizens and consumers ultimately have the real power, just like a democracy where people have the real power, but the government [attempts to] control the message. So just like the government wouldn’t want to cede that control, why would brands and PR practitioners want to cede it voluntarily?

Controlling a message is not some Big Brother, micro managing tactic; it is similar to trying to win an argument in a debate. There is nothing wrong with that and there is no reason for giving that up. Sometimes you win and people write what you want; sometimes you don’t and people write how they see it. Bloggers and citizen journalists tend to write how they see it, but that’s not a case of voluntarily ceding control, that’s a case of people grabbing control.

And contrary to PR practitioners ceding control, the social media release seems specifically designed to control the online message. It might offer resources to find information from other sources, but the key messages, the messages practitioners are trying to communicate, are in the lead section of the social media release.

The tool is called StoryCrafter, but I don’t see much storytelling. There are core facts and quotes, but there’s no real narrative. That kind of brevity probably works for the Internet and the social media for which it is designed; but I’ve always been the type of person that rather reads the book than the Cliffs Notes.

Now then, in the realm of traditional news releases with a narrative, Greg Sandow at Arts Journal has written about how to make news releases more interesting. He protests dumb and empty news releases and offers some examples of how he thinks they should be written. There are some interesting paragraphs, but in an accompanying paragraph to one of the sample releases he states:

“Instead of starting with the normal—and often stultifying—who, what, when, and where, this press release starts like a magazine piece, with a narrative that’s meant to draw the reader in. But that leaves the place, dates, and times of the performances unstated. So I put them in a headline.”

Other samples he provides seem to follow that same format. I have a problem with that approach. I think it is great to pitch journalists with those paragraphs, or to put it in the body of the news release. It is interesting and though-provoking information and it needs to be communicated, but it does not belong in the first paragraph of a news release. Those releases are not written for the general public, they are written for a specific public who prefer specific formatting. There is a reason why the 5Ws are ingrained in the first paragraph; it is the most important information and that information needs to come first. Sandow’s examples are, quite frankly, a bit cheesy. Journalists are usually on deadline and receive dozens of releases per day; you don’t want them to have to look for the date, time, location and key players (from experience I discovered that just putting it in the headline is not enough).

Later, Sandow writes:

“…behind every performance, there’s a story buried. Not all of them might be gripping, but they all mean something. The musicians themselves might not think to tell them, but if you talk to them long enough, the stories will emerge. This, I grant you, means that publicists need two skills that haven’t been in their job description up to now. They really have to know the music they’re writing publicity about, and they have to know how to interview their clients, to unearth the stories, feelings, ideas, and points of view that might interest a wider public.”

I do agree with that statement, although I admit not having that extent of knowledge about music when I started my job. I am still far from being an expert on music, but for every release I write and for all the calendar items, I check some great resources including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and over a hundred years worth of program books from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And I try to listen to the pieces I am writing about. Additionally, it helps that we have a great and almost omniscient archivist who is a part of the communications department.

Sandow’s suggestion of talking to the musicians and artists to put a human face on the release is great. I’d love to see the possibilities myself. I think a good example of a more interesting release comes from my colleague who wrote the release on our Beyond the Score performance. That performance in itself required a more explanatory narrative, but I know she discussed the topics with Gerard McBurney, the series creative director, to come to those interesting paragraphs.

Those are some interesting developments in news release land.

7 December 2006 | Arts Management, Media and Journalism Issues, New Media and Blogosphere, PR and Communication | Comments