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What can be done better when it comes to press release distribution?
The press release process just isn't as streamlined as it could be. What I do like are press releases copied straight into an email message, with pictures attached or linked separately. The text should be easily copied, so it retains its run-on qualities. Here's why:
I get over a hundred emails about press releases, events and interviews a week. Time is limited - both to check email, and to feature any of the emailed releases on the blogs. When you have limited bandwidth, every click saved helps.
1a. Please say what your email is about in the email subject head for triage purposes - invitation, interview/media pitch, question, byline proposal, or release?
1b. When I'm picking which emails to open, those which do not have the vendor's name at the beginning get passed over. So do those which look like direct marketing.
2. Emails or calls to check "if this release is relevant" or "if you have any questions" don't really work any more. The releases are generally relevant. I don't have questions. But the answer to the elephant in the room is probably no, I can't feature your release because I don't have the bandwidth to do so.
1b. When I'm picking which emails to open, those which do not have the vendor's name at the beginning get passed over. So do those which look like direct marketing.
2. Emails or calls to check "if this release is relevant" or "if you have any questions" don't really work any more. The releases are generally relevant. I don't have questions. But the answer to the elephant in the room is probably no, I can't feature your release because I don't have the bandwidth to do so.
Personally knowing the sender does have an edge, but in the end it boils down to what's the most newsworthy email I've received for the day.
WhatsApp chats are a great medium to contact me as it's more immediate than email, and it's easier to get hold of me than trying to call. Not everyone wants to be contacted on WhatsApp though.
3a. Cover notes that basically repeat what's in the press release. I can easily skip to the actual release, after all. If you must have a summary, either make it really short or say it's a summary.
I've also received cover notes that look like a press release, only to find that they were summaries and that there were actually many more details in the release. Please say it's a summary if it's one.
3b. Cover notes that add details which are not in the press release, without specifying they're not in the release. This happens for example for a regional quote, local customers or statistics. It's hard for me to tell what's not in the press release, unless that's highlighted. So all that effort to get extra information can get overlooked.
4. PDFs. Sometimes, text in a PDF cannot be copied. When it can be copied, it can often only be copied a page at a time, which is rather tedious. When I copy text in a PDF over into the blogging software, the formatting disappears. Text no longer runs on and I have to spend time reconnecting sentences and paragraphs. Pictures can't be copied over easily either. I have to resort to screen captures.
5. Pictures - typically infographics - sent as PDFs. Blogger doesn't accept PDFs as a picture format. I can only do screen captures, and because of the time constraints typically only capture part of the infographic. It is impossible to capture fancy designs on a long portrait-style infographic and still keep the text readable. JPGs please!
6a. Fancy layouts in press releases. These are the ones with quotes and sidebars in separate text boxes. Each text box usually has to be copied separately. This is tedious. Apple has a nice feature at its pressroom where you can opt to copy just the text of a media release, btw.
6b. When pictures break up the text in press releases. It looks pretty and makes it more readable, but my layout isn't going to be the same as your layout. I'm not looking at your press release to read it, but to copy it so that I can work with the text in the document. When I can only copy chunks of text instead of all of the text, it slows the process down.
7a. No pictures. These days pictures are help in getting more views for the story. Please, please, please send pictures or a link to where I can download them.
7b. Pictures sent as a huge WeTransfer or zipped file. While I like pictures, I don't need many of them. I want to be able to look through what you have and pick a couple, not download all 20 of them as a 100 MB file. Cloud storage options such as Box, Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox allow me to browse first.
7c. Pictures sent without attributions or captions. Pictures accompanying stories are very helpful, unless there are no captions. Sometimes it is impossible to guess who the people in them may be, or what is being illustrated in a picture. If several products are launched at the same time, I might not know which product is the focus for that picture.
A list of captions can be especially helpful to shortlist pictures when there are a lot of pictures to pick from.
8. Videos sent to be hosted on the blogs. I only have so much storage space for all the content. I can't host videos, but am happy to link to them as appropriate.
9. Statistics which are out-of-date. I consider statistics dated more
than a year ago to be obsolete. A related peeve: statistics that don't
come with a citation of the source. In the age of AI, I don't want to
cite anything which is actually an AI hallucination.
10a. Footnote mayhem. Sometimes footnotes are listed in the body copy, without corresponding explanations (will delete these, but surely they were there for a reason). Sometimes there are more footnotes than are listed in the body copy. Sometimes there are plain too many footnotes.
10b. Footnotes that reference a secondary source, instead of the primary source of the research or statistics. In the age of AI, I've found that cited sources may not exist; or the information may not be in the cited source, which could change the narrative totally.
11. Redundancy. I don't mind summaries ahead of the body copy, but sometimes you get a lot of repetition about the same product in different parts of the press release. There is no need to say the same thing so many times. This is typical with AI-generated text.
12. Clarifications on currency. When a dollar symbol is used, it is not always clear which currency is meant. If a US company issues a press release from Singapore, I will assume that dollar figures are quoted in Singapore dollars. This might however not be the case at all.
13. Not putting the most important information first in the press release. The current trend is to have a note that a vendor has conducted some research. That's not as important as the findings of the research. It would make more sense to list some key findings in the first paragraph.
14. Summarising what happened at an event. It's fine that several speeches happened and everyone learned a lot, but my readers aren't interested in reading the minutes. What would be more helpful would be to get key takeaways from the speeches that anyone can learn from and apply.
10b. Footnotes that reference a secondary source, instead of the primary source of the research or statistics. In the age of AI, I've found that cited sources may not exist; or the information may not be in the cited source, which could change the narrative totally.
11. Redundancy. I don't mind summaries ahead of the body copy, but sometimes you get a lot of repetition about the same product in different parts of the press release. There is no need to say the same thing so many times. This is typical with AI-generated text.
12. Clarifications on currency. When a dollar symbol is used, it is not always clear which currency is meant. If a US company issues a press release from Singapore, I will assume that dollar figures are quoted in Singapore dollars. This might however not be the case at all.
13. Not putting the most important information first in the press release. The current trend is to have a note that a vendor has conducted some research. That's not as important as the findings of the research. It would make more sense to list some key findings in the first paragraph.
14. Summarising what happened at an event. It's fine that several speeches happened and everyone learned a lot, but my readers aren't interested in reading the minutes. What would be more helpful would be to get key takeaways from the speeches that anyone can learn from and apply.
Bonus peeve: sending a comment from a spokesperson in an attachment with the spokesperson's details in the email. This means I have to do two copy-and-pastes when it could have been just one.
Read about telltale signs ChatGPT was used
The link to this page is https://worksmartasia.blogspot.com/p/pet-peeves.html
