Defining the press release

Richard McManus recounts an email exchange with Business Wire in which the news distribution service said companies and marketers can use Business Wire to bypass journalists and bloggers to get into key news sources like Techmeme and search engine results.

Is it true? asks Richard, who proceeds to answer his own question:

[…] I think it’s a fair claim – and there’s no reason why Business Wire shouldn’t feature in Techmeme if it is ‘breaking’ news stories or is being linked to by bloggers. In fact it does indeed route around blogs that simply regurgitate PR – which is a good thing in my book!

Richard posted a snippet from a Business Wire email:

[…] [the email] stated that "with a team of engineers and coders, press releases have not only gone ‘public’ but they are embedded with multimedia and infiltrate search engine and social media flawlessly."

That snippet sounds a lot like the social media release, of which much debate continues and which has yet to gain wide acceptance.

I think the SMR should and could play a significant role in communication outreach as the structure and format that’s developing is, in my view, far more useful to both the creators and the consumers of the content.

But in terms of traditional press releases, I’d agree with Richard’s view in the sense that Business Wire is a conduit for mass dissemination of news/information generated by others.

In the case of Techmeme, if a story is noticed by whatever means Techmeme uses to notice such things, that story will get into Techmeme no matter the source – Business Wire, the originator, whoever.

That’s how it’s supposed to work, right?

Richard also makes some good points on what he sees as journalism’s (and blogging’s) value-add.

The best part of his post, though, is this quote from Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera:

[…] Press releases are kind of like poorly-written company blog posts, which also have a place on Techmeme.

A definition for today!