An Inconvenient PR Truth

Facts:

• 78% of press release emails are received by Recipients to whom they are irrelevant

• 55% of Recipients have taken action to block a sender of news

Here’s an interesting campaign to reduce the billions of press release emails being sent each year by the PR Industry to journalists, bloggers and publishers for whom they are irrelevant. The following animation is about the damage being inflicted to the online environment by irrelevant press release emails and it is based on a very interesting report:

An Inconvenient PR Truth from RealWire on Vimeo.

Bill of rights

The following rights are for discussion as  a practical contract between the PR community and journalists + bloggers.

Right 1 – Permission required

Press releases should only be sent to Recipients who have given express or implied permission. Implied permission meaning the recipient has stated publicly that they are happy to receive press releases.

Right 2 – Timely unsubscribe

Should a Recipient be added to a distribution list either voluntarily or involuntarily he or she has the right to be removed from that list in a timely manner if they request it.

Right 3 – Don’t rely on media lists exclusively

The PR person should not wholly rely on purchased media lists to ensure accurate targeting.

Right 4 – Read publication first

Before any correspondence is entered into, the PR person will have first researched the Recipient’s subject focus and read the publication or articles they write or publish to ensure that the content is relevant.

Right 5 – Categorise interests in detail

The Recipient has the right to expect that PR people will categorise their interests in detail and not label them under a vague description such as ‘technology’.

Right 6 – Types of release

A Recipient has the right to receive press releases about ‘types’ of stories that they are likely to be interested in and not announcements of any kind just because of an industry categorisation.

Right 7 – Telephone chasing

After receiving a press release the Recipient should not expect a follow up call from the sender. Acts of such kind only waste time and have no bearing on whether a press release is used for a news story.

Right 8 – Succinct headlines

A Recipient has the right to receive press releases with succinctly written headlines so a decision of interest can be made quickly.

Right 9 – Use clear format

A Recipient has the right to receive press release emails that have been formatted to highlight the key information quickly to the reader, such as a summary of the story, who it is about, contact details and links to supporting information.

Right 10 – No attachments

A Recipient has the right not to receive any press release or related content as an attachment to the corresponding email.

Visit inconvenientprtruth.com to learn more.