Press releases with ‘a song and dance'

Clare O'Connor 18-Jul-07

Newly published research indicates that 75 per cent of journalists would prefer to receive media-rich press releases than a standard email or Word file attachment.

However, the bulk of the 128 journalists surveyed for the report by software designers Glide Technologies said they hardly ­ever receive such releases.

A media-rich press release is delivered via email, but differs from a standard release by linking directly back to a website where journalists can access additional information, high resolution images, video or sound clips, graphs and statistics. This means an end to large email attachments – or the need for journalists to chase photos.

‘For a press release to stand out, it really has to make a song and dance,’ said Will Ham-Bevan, deputy ­editor of Telegraph Create (The Telegraph’s advertorial unit).‘If I can click to a pack-shot at 300dpi, I am far more likely to use it.’

While still a minaority, some PR agencies have started to tailor their press releases for an increasingly web-savvy crop of journalists and bloggers. Stephen Davies, social media manager at webitpr, has led the charge in the UK, recently using a media-rich release for Converseon, a New York-based client. Davies credits the easily accessible format, which included a YouTube video, with 25 pieces of coverage generated over two days.

The research confirms that journalists are deluged with press releases from PROs, with the majority of those polled receiving over 20 per day (see chart, below). News of the World Sunday magazine’s features editor Nick Harding reported receiving 100 email press releases ‘on a bad day’.

Journalists also bemoaned the scattergun approach of some PROs; 68 per cent said a poorly targeted press release could lead them to delete all future correspondence from the PRO responsible, while 96 per cent were irritated by poor contact information (see graph, below).

 

To watch Samantha Deeks of Glide Technologies in this week's Video podcast, click here.

Produced in association with

To download a sample of a media-rich press release, click here

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