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Content Critical
Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content
The Web
Content
Style Guide
The essential guide
for online writers, editors and managers
February 23, 2004
Press releases are awful web content
By Gerry McGovern
In the hierarchy of content, the press release is a bottom feeder. It is a single cell organism. In fact, it was never meant to see the light of day. To most people, reading a press release is about as interesting as reading a parking fine. And yet press releases proliferate on the Web.
If you shut down your website tomorrow would it really make any difference to anyone? Would your customers or staff care? Would your profits be affected? Many organizations are only now asking these fundamental questions.
Every organization has to have a website. Not having a website is just not cool. So, some organizations fill their websites with stuff as cheaply as possible. They’ve some nice photos and lots of press releases.
Press releases are very handy. They’re there, they’re in digital format, and they promote the organization. Perfect for the Web. Let’s say I’m a journalist and I’m thinking of doing a story on your organization. Where is the last place I’m going to look?
You guessed it! The media/press section. I’m going to root around your website to try and find something interesting. I’m certainly not going to be corralled into your media section and fed the story you’d like me to write.
Press releases were never meant to be published. They are fodder for journalists. They are, at best, the raw material of a story. As content, they are intensely boring, ridiculously hyped and faintly ridiculous.
Have you checked the bottom of a press release on the Web recently? Have you noticed the phrase: "Please go to our website for more information.” Have you noticed that press releases invariably start with the organization’s name? Why is that? It’s because a press release gets released. It goes out from the organization.
A press release lands on a desk—or in an inbox—with 50 other press releases. During its short life between desk and trash, it needs to stand out. The first thing it needs to communicate is who it’s from.
People can be fairly stupid on the Web. However, most exhibit a basic level of intelligence. They don’t arrive at a website totally by accident. It’s not as if they want to go to IBM and end up at Victoria’s Secret. And should they have somehow lost their way, the logo at the top left will tell them where they are.
That’s why content doesn’t need to keep stating the obvious by starting a heading or sentence with the organization’s name. It is a lazy and annoying thing to do. It speaks volumes about how that organization is approaching its web strategy.
Maybe you have to put press releases up on your website for legal reasons. Just know that they are not the reason any sane person would decide to come to your website. A website that places press releases on its homepage is communicating a clear message: We couldn’t be bothered writing useful web content so we just threw up this dross.
Okay, press releases do serve a purpose. When the media wants to do a negative story, it’s nice to be able to trawl. "Your CEO said this in a press release in 2002. The reality in 2004 is very different. Why?"
Gerry McGovern
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Okay, press releases do serve a purpose. When the media wants to do a negative story, it’s nice to be able to trawl.
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