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101 YEARS OF CHANGE IN MEDIA RELATIONS At the end of October, the world marks a little-known anniversary - the
invention of the press release. There may be other office inventions - the
fax machine, the photocopier, the internet - that have had a far greater
impact on both modern society in general and the communications industry in
particular, but few have gone the distance. How many inventions from 1906
are still in operation today? Will we still be using the fax machine, for
instance, 100 years from now? The press release was birthed on 28 October 1906 by Mr Ivy Lee following a
major rail accident. Lee, considered by many to be the father of modern
PR, convinced his client Pennsylvania Railroad to distribute the first press
release, and to invite the gentlemen of the press to the crash site. He
even laid on a special train to transport them. The New York Times printed that release - verbatim - on 30 October 1906. In the century since then, the press release has become part of the public
relations landscape and has weathered many changes in technology that have
altered the channels of dissemination but not the concept of the release
itself. And yet, for all its longevity, the press release is one of the most
maligned items in the public relations arsenal attracting major criticism
from those on the receiving end of it - the media. Ask any journalist what
he disparages most about the PR profession and he is likely to comment on
the press release. It's badly written, it's poorly targeted (in the sense
that it refers to a beat which he does not cover) and it's mass mailed. In
that light, the press release has come to represent the lack of training and
professionalism in a rapidly growing industry. So it's not the release
which is so much at fault as the PR practitioner who issues it. It's possible to have a well-written release but it will still draw fire if
the distribution list is un-researched or too large. In that sense, the
modern day press release is analogous to an AK47 in the hands of a child
soldier - it's too powerful a weapon to be left in the hands of juniors who
don't have the experience or skill set to know how to handle it judiciously. Interestingly, the writing style of the humble release has changed
significantly in the last ten years. For starters, top-of-their-game
practitioners refer to them as media releases to indicate that the locus of
reach embraces radio and television newsrooms (broadcast media) as well as
internet news portals (cyber media) and not just newspapers or magazines
(print media). The game ahs changed. The field has gotten wider. But we
still play with the same ball. ENDS. Marcus Brewster is the CEO of SA"s most awarded PR firm, Marcus Brewster
Publicity.
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