On a recent edition of ESPN2's "Fastbreak," which provides
highlights and analysis of the day's NBA games, host Kevin Frazier
reported that former Atlanta Hawk star Dominique Wilkins had joined
the club's management team.
One sensed that Frazier was reading directly from a corporate
press release. Wilkins "will have multiple business and basketball
positions with the club," said Frazier, adding that the nine-time
All-Pro will be "advising the board of managers and senior
management team on all basketball-related issues, working as a
strong voice in the community, and serving as a member of the
executive committee and the Hawks' Free Agent Acquisition
Committee." After a somewhat pregnant pause, "Fastbreak" co-host
and NBA analyst Greg Anthony chimed in, "I don't what that means,
but that's a great job."
The Hawks' managers -- not to mention the suits at the NBA -
must have been thrilled.
Press releases, often the first line of communications for
companies, are getting worse. While the PR industry continues to
talk a good game about the importance of press releases - there are
dozens of seminars throughout the year promoting "dynamic" press
release writing -- the reality is that press releases are
increasingly failing to hit their mark and ending up as trash.
The deteriorating state of press releases is particularly
worrisome considering that press releases - while generally
targeted to news outlets - are no longer the sole domain of media
relations, not when anyone with a modem can read your releases
online. As the Web further encroaches on the home and the office --
and becomes a conduit to an endless amount of news -- press
releases need to be viewed more as marketing tools than pieces of
paper that squirt ink.
"Some companies overestimate press releases and aren't concerned
with quality but volume," says Kirk Sullivan, PR director for Sante
Fe Springs, CA-based IQAir North America, which manufacturers
air-cleaning systems for hospitals and homes. "Other companies
understand that good press releases can make all the difference in
the world about people knowing your product."
They can also build relationships. Sullivan recently put out a
release stating that IQAir had filed a Federal Trade Commission
complaint against Consumer Reports because the organization had not
tested IQ Air's product -- even though it is recognized as No. 1 in
the industry, according to Sullivan. The release piqued the
interest of the American Lung Association which, after
communicating with IQ Air, created an educational partnership with
the company to raise awareness on indoor air quality issues. "I got
call from a senior executive at the American Lung Association,
whose first words were, 'I have your press release in my hand,'"
Sullivan says. "Here's an example of a press release communicating
a story to the person you need to tell that story to."
Dawn Josephson, founder of Hilton Head, SC-based Cameo
Publishing, an editorial and publishing services firm, whose
clients include motivational speakers, adds: "Press releases can be
written for so many different avenues, and when they're properly
written (read: journalistically), can lead to more profit, more
customers and more exposure."
Josephson, author of "Putting it on Paper" (2004, Ground Rules
Press) which was written to help companies create promotional
pieces, brainstorms with her staff for at least an hour before
starting a press release. "Good releases should spawn new ideas,"
she says. "The best objective is to get a journalist interested,
who will then ask questions, which will lead to a story that
consumers will notice."
Part of the problem with lousy press releases is generational.
It used to be that many PR pros were ex-journalists who cut their
teeth in newsrooms and could separate a good story from the
gobbledygook that currently passes for many press releases. No
more. Many PR execs today came of age during the Internet
boom-and-bust, when it didn't matter what was said in the release
just so long as it got across the transom. Another problem is what
many say is inadequate training for writing press releases that
will get bites.
Drew Kerr, president-founder of New York-based PR firm Four
Corners Communications, weans his executives on the Wall Street
Journal and tests their PR mettle by having them write dummy pieces
as if they were pitching the Journal. Taking lessons from the
Journal "shows that [press releases] can be clever without getting
wild and crazy," says Kerr, who represents Dennis Publishing
(Blender, Maxim and Stuff), The Sporting News, ECKO Unltd., one of
the largest designers of hip-hop clothing, and VNU Business
Media.
"You have to grab them from the very first word," he says. Kerr
has developed a reputation in New York media circles for writing
some of the juiciest press releases. "There's nothing wrong with
using metaphors, puns or comparisons...But what does the release
really mean strategically for your company and how does it move the
story?"
Jim Klapthor, media relations manager at Chicago-based Institute
of Food Technologists, writes his press releases in Associated
Press style, keeps them down to about 400 words and tries to
include an angle that hasn't been covered before. With marketing
dollars still tight, "it's imperative that any release have an
impact on the bottom line," he says. "It doesn't matter what you're
selling: the NBA, Ford or the latest legislation from Capitol Hill.
You have to create the releases so information is said repeatedly
and gets across to consumers."
Contacts: Dawn Josephson, 866.372.2636, [email protected];
Drew Kerr, 212.849.8255, [email protected]; Jim
Klapthor, 312.782.8424, [email protected]; Steve Lundin,
773.779.1952, [email protected]; Kirk
Sullivan, 562.903.7600, [email protected]