For years people have touted the demise of the news release…for good reason. In the Internet age, the initial purpose of the release—to inform the media you hope will then inform the “masses”—has definitely changed. Now you no longer need to rely solely on the reporter intermediary. You can submit your news release directly to your target “audience” (or “public,” “community,” stakeholders” or “constituents” depending on which communications guru you follow).
Over the years, people have suggested various changes to the traditional news release. Probably the most significant was the social news release (http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf).
Recently, however, some people have become more creative. In their article “New-Form Press Release, in Blog, Tweet and Haiku,” http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/new-form-press-release-in-blog-tweet-and-haiku/?ref=technology, Kevin Roose and Peter Lattman describe people using blogs (not terribly new), tweets (definitely takes several to make any significant announcement) and even haiku to convey news.
An example of the latter dealt with Google’s acquisition of Zagat. The haiku, written by Marissa Mayer, Google’s top executive for local and location services, stated: “Delightful deal done; Zagat and Google now one; foodies have more fun!”
I applaud the idea that people can have fun with news. But probably most people reading that haiku already knew what had happened. The haiku wasn’t truly “announcing” something; it was playing with a previous announcement.
The authors note that most of the more creative news releases come from Silicon Valley and its ilk, not from more staid ndustries such as banking, insurance or utilities.
What’s ahead for the news release? I do not hazard a guess, but I definitely welcome your opinions.
