For virtually all of the 20th century, press releases were text-only documents. They were always written for and aimed primarily at newspapers, which would interpret them, write what they wanted and that’s what John Q Investor ultimately read. But, thankfully, times are changing.
What is causing the change? One reason is the internet. Press releases are no longer just for the press. With the advent of the internet the gatekeeper is gone, the investor public can now see a press release in its original full-text format, in real-time, on Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, Multex and myriad other online sites.
The aim of this column is not to judge whether this wider access is good or bad, but rather to explain why the press release as you know it – as you are comfortable with it – has changed, will continue to change and why this change is good.
Dot-com companies (remember them?) were the first to recognize that it made good business sense to use the press release as a marketing tool, often in lieu of advertising. Of course they spent millions of ill-advised advertising dollars on such things as 30-second or minute-long Super Bowl spots. Some may argue this even helped usher in their demise. But despite the dot-com implosion, their use of the press release as a marketing tool has changed the landscape. They demonstrated what an awesome tool the press release can be.
Couple that with the interactivity of the so-called next generation press release and what you have is a new, smarter, more robust press release. The smart news release is more than ever before eye-catching and attention-grabbing. It utilizes multimedia elements (photos, logos, charts, slide shows, audio, visual and Flash) to supplement the basic text-based press release. And it works.
The bottom line is that dot-com sites (CNN.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com, etc) need content, and they will use content more often if it is sent with multimedia. A picture is indeed worth 1,000 words and this has never been truer than with the web.
Internet audiences are a show me, don’t tell me crowd. They expect a web-friendly experience. They demand it. They want the press release to do more than tell them something in long, endless lines of prose. They want visual proof – charts, tables, video, you name it.
But it is not just online audiences that are demanding more. Traditional journalists also want more than just text. They want a variety of multimedia assets to accompany the press release. Public companies have to build a news package around the press release. Editors will more likely use a press release if it is more comprehensive.
The analytics that you can now send via a press release tell a story in ways that words just cannot. And even if the Wall Street Journal can’t place video on its pages, a press release with a video link just helps to tell the story better. A video of the CEO or CFO talking about a product, explaining an earnings release, or calming nerves during a crisis situation gives credibility to the message. Although there is no analytical proof yet available, press releases with photos or logos are more likely to be used by newspapers and the financial press.
Traditionally it’s been difficult to make business news visual. Now, even annual reports can be part of the press release. Public companies have embraced visual tools like webcasting, but until now they have not been able to take press releases to that next level.
A new document description language called NewsML is becoming widely known and it is more versatile than the mainstream internet language, HTML. It provides a structure that supports various formats including text, video, audio, graphics and photos. With NewsML technology it will be easier than ever to meta-tag a press release with various multimedia elements, making it routine for editors to download the multimedia elements that suit their purpose and needs.
With this new structure IR managers will be able to measure results and find out who accessed their press releases, for instance. Additionally they can embed surveys into their press releases to get an instant response to crucial issues.
The question is not whether or not the press release has changed. It has changed and it will continue to evolve into a smart and interactive multimedia tool. The question is, will the IR industry respond? Will it support these changes? If companies embrace this new technology the IR industry will follow suit. Innovative IR professionals have already done so. Others will follow. The next question is when?
Michael Lissauer is senior vice president of marketing and business strategy for Business Wire
