Quote Originally Posted by mattplapp View Post
A press release is 100% advertising. This is what I do for a living, we pay PR firms to create stories and get them published. It's a form of advertising that most readers don't realize is advertising. Most think a reporter beat the street and found a juicy story. When in fact most articles you see in the paper and on the internet not dealing with murders or acts of god, are in fact paid advertisements through Press Releases professionally prepared to bring attention to something a company is doing to create business. Oh yes, it's advertising.Matt
Matt, if you are paying people to put out press releases and they are printing them as is, then your PR firm deserves a raise and the publication's editors deserve to be unemployed.

I have been a member of the media for over 20 years. I have done "hard news," sports and now outdoors. If you sent me a press release, chances are, nothing would be done about it, but if it was it would not be published "as is."

I get press releases nearly every day from outdoor companies as well as state agencies such as KDFWR. I rarely do anything with them, unless it is a good story line. When I do, I normally take some of the information and the contact name and number, and call and get real information for the story I am about to write. This helps weed out the unpaid advertisement.

Here is a good example. Back in December, I got a press release from KDFWR concerning the opening of the Knobs State Forest and WMA in Bullitt County. I called the wildlife biologist who was in charge of managing it, and wrote a story. It was completely different from what was in the press release, but had a lot to do with what would be allowed (not mentioned in the press release) and what would not, management goals etc. That story ran in the March issue of Midwest Outdoors magazine.


Not trying to argue this point, but any editor that is printing press releases as is, is asleep at the wheel, and I can not imagine this happening at a major publication.