Why PR pros should ditch newswires
This communicator says the oft-employed media relations tactic isn’t up to snuff, advising that you should spend your time and money on other efforts. Do you agree?
Given that we wanted to garner global coverage in multiple languages, I had the support of a well-known and well-regarded international PR agency. (Grab a coffee, and prepare for a rant.)
Getting a press release ready to go out was a mission: I’d brief the agency, they would draft the press release, I’d edit it, they’d send another draft, and I’d edit it again. Then it would go through an arduous approvals process involving the stakeholders, the legal team and senior managers, each with their own thoughts marked in the tracked changes.
After weeks—or, in some cases, months—we’d get the go-ahead to release the news. The agency, a global leader in the industry, was responsible for distributing the news to media outlets, and their approach was to simply fire it up on the newswire and see what happened.
With newswires, what’s the return on Investment?
A global press release with a photograph cost up to 5,000 euros. Bear in mind, we were already paying this company a hefty retainer for their services, and given that we aimed for one press release per month, this lazy approach added in the region of 60,000 euros to the annual PR bill.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.
