From Great Britain comes a brilliant video (below) warning against PR's contribution to the world's pollution problem -- irrelevant news releases. It's presented by an online news release distribution firm, RealWire.
Three-quarters of online press releases, says RealWire, are received by people for whom they are irrelevant. This is an "inconvenient PR truth."
Fifty-five percent of recipients have taken action to block a sender of news. Every PR practitioner should ask what he or she has done to reduce irrelevance today.
The alternative is grave danger to the utility of PR itself. The really interesting stories are getting lost in the clutter.
Take the time to know your clients and the media outlets that are likely to be interested in them for given reasons. That's the essence of RealWire's plea. RealWire has created a Web site to get its urgently expressed point across -- AnInconvenientPRTruth.com.
"1.7 billion irrelevant press release e-mails estimated to be received in total each year by U.K. and U.S. journalists alone," proclaims the site and presents a newly issued research report backing that up (in the form of a Slideshare presentation).
There's also a Bill of Rights "that we believe have been demanded by journalists and bloggers." They include Permission required, Timely unsubscribe, Don't rely on media lists exclusively, and Read (the) publication first.
Are these truisms? Maybe. They're too often honored in the breach.
RealWire has produced a fervently felt presentation that's in its own business interests -- quality over quantity. It's also in the interest of the entire PR profession as well.
This video should be viewed in every PR office on our endangered planet. We thank Ewan and his Mobile Industry Review blog in London for bringing RealWire's plea to our notice.
Adam Parker, Chief Executive, RealWire (Great Britain)
on 30 Jan 2010 at 5:27 am
Hi Doug
Thanks for featuring the campaign and your very kind words about the video. Though lead by us we were very keen to try and mitigate accusations of self promotion (though clearly we couldn't do that entirely). To that end we involved others from the UK PR and media industries in launching the campaign including two of our UK press release distribution competitors. (Check out the Supporters list at the bottom of the site).
You may be interested to know that the campaign rapidly picked up pace in the UK resulting in a significant discussion in the mainstream arena on PR Week UK yesterday http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/980491/PR-industry-backs-new-campaign-aimed-cutting-PR-spam . The fact that we have started a mainstream debate which was our stated aim http://inconvenientprtruth.com/2010/01/19/enough-is-enough/ ,but one that seems to be at risk of just being seen as a publicity stunt has lead us to take the step of offering to either rip up the language and format of the debate and start again or step aside completely if we can get someone like the UK CIPR or PRCA to take it forward http://inconvenientprtruth.com/2010/01/29/an-opportunity-not-to-be-wasted/.
You are correct to point out that getting this issue debated could be in our business interests, but only as you also rightly say in so much as it is also in the industry's as a whole.
Thanks again.
Adam
About the Author Doug Bedell
Doug Bedell has a background in journalism and PR and is the proprietor of Resource Relations in Central PA, which focuses on organizational communication, crisis communication, and social media. His blog, “Beetles Beat,” can be found at www.ResourceRelations.net. On Twitter, he’s DougBeetle.
