Is the Press Release Dead?

About Universal Amplifier

Universal Information Services uses our blog as a mouthpiece to amplify and illuminate issues related to measuring the impact of public relations and media exposure. Often covered in our writings are topics that show how the fundamentals of business and PR communication intersect with behavioral outcomes on a desired audience. Media monitoring has evolved well past the function of simply tracking results and now must interpret the effectiveness and impact those results have. We hope you find engaging content and ideas within the Universal Amplifier.

By admin | June 28th, 2017

No, but it has changed.

I’ve recently been asked what seems to be a recurring question in my professional career: “Austin, are press releases dead?”

The answer isn’t as clear cut as some might think.

PR professionals, particularly from the B2B side of PR, have written about this topic extensively, but there is no consensus if the press release/media release/media alert is truly dead. In my opinion, many authors and professionals who try to tackle this subject often forget the true function of a press release in modern day public relations and end up just dismissing press releases as an archaic tool because they don’t know how to use it.

Now, as a Millennial who is fairly fresh to the public relations field, I should argue that the press release is dead, but I think the better way to approach this topic is to say that it has just changed forms and is used much differently in 2017 than it was, say, 20 years ago.