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Who do you send a press release to?

I’m serious, I don’t know the answer.

10 or 12 years ago I remember scouring relevant magazines and newspapers for the names and email addresses of reporters, editors, and publishers in order to create a media distribution list. Before that it was fax numbers. When I wanted to get news out from my law firm, and later an Internet company, I sent out a press release to those on my media list.

If I was discrete in the news people I sent a release to, as opposed to buying a CD with names, fax numbers, and email addresses and spamming the world, I got pretty good results. News people appreciated the info, often covered the story, and when I did press conferences accompanying the release they showed up.

Maybe that stuff still happens. I don’t know. But LexBlog has never sent out a press release. At the same time I have a pretty good relationship with reporters and am regularly called upon for stories they are working on, including stories about whatLexBlog does, why we do it, and who we do it for.

I’d like to think if I emailed select reporters and suggested a story that the reporters would listen. In some cases I can anticipate a blog post of mine to lead to a news story. Reporters, editors, and publishers have become my friends, as opposed to people to use to get me exposure.

This week we’re going to release our State of the AmLaw 200 Blogosphere report, something LexBlog’s been doing twice a year for the last few years. It was suggested that I may want to send out a press release.

My question is who do I send the press release to? Don’t I accomplish the same thing by posting a blog post with the report as I always have? As a courtesy to reporters and editors, couldn’t I just email them a link to my blog post? How does a press release help them?

Some law firms and companies use press release services such as PR Newswire or PRWeb for press releases, many in large part for Search Engine Optimization. Getting links from such sites to your company website or blog using keywords describing your offering causes your website or blog to rank higher on such keyword searches. But that feels a bit like a sham and I’m not looking for SEO.

So help me out. I’ve got this news on the growing using of blogs by large law (AmLaw 200 law firms). Do I send out a press release? If so, why? Who do I send it to?

  • http://www.PublicityHound.net Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound

    You’re asking an excellent question.
    If you’re introducing a new product, you want to do both. Press releases are written much like a newspaper article would be written with “just the facts.”
    One of the big advantages of press releases is that journalists, bloggers and others can simply cut and paste from the press release. Blogs, on the other hand, are written in a more informal, personal style.
    –Write a press release and post it to PRWeb. Journalists and others who are interested in law-related news can actually “subscribe” to certain types of feeds via PRWeb. So the release will go to those who are interested in your topic. Once they see the release, they might call you for an interview. Journalists and others go to this site and search for information by topic. If the only place that somebody can find info on the product is at your blog, they won’t find it at PRWeb.
    –Now, let your Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections know about the release.Just give an enticing headline and link to it at the PRWeb site.
    –Now, write a blog post that ties into the press release. Why was the product created? What does it do? Can you offer a behind-the-scenes look at what went into creating it, something that the press release doesn’t explain?
    –Now, post the same press release at your website, in your online press room. You want to do this so that people who come to your website can find recent information about what you’re doing.
    –If you wish, you can now pitch the story to a select group of journalists and bloggers. These can be people whose names you have collected and put into a database. I’d create individual pitches for each journalists or blogger, customized for their audience, and then include a link where they can see the press release.
    –What about people on Twitter who “tweet” about law-related topics? Don’t forget about them. Sometimes you can get far more traction on Twitter than you can in traditional media, simply because so many on Twitter retweet. How do you find these people? Go to Search.Twitter.com and search for #law, #lawyers, #legal and other related words, using hashtags. Twitter will bring up a list of tweets written by people who have used those hashtags. You can then go to each person’s Twitter page and decide if they’re worth following. If so, follow them. They might follow you back. You can then send them a direct message and let them know about your product, and link to the press release on PRWeb.
    –Finally, how about creating a short video, about two and a half minutes, discussing the product? You can do this with an inexpensive Flip video camera and upload the video to YouTube.
    Hope this helps.
    P.S. You also might want to consider a subscription to Expertclick, the Online Yearbook of Experts. A subscription puts you in their experts directory and lets you post up to 52 press releases per year. You can then link to these releases from your blog or the online press room at your website. Learn more at Expertclick.com, and tell them I sent you.

  • http://www.PublicityHound.net Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound

    I just rereadyour post and see that you are releasing a report, not a product.
    The advice I gave above still applies.

  • Don

    From what I can tell (as a reader of press releases and news stories), journalists often lean heavily on the quotes attributed in press releases. Those quotes show up in stories verbatim, giving a sense that real reporting has been done.
    For you, a few choice quotes — from you and from a few of the firms, perhaps with some geographic diversity — could make it easy for a reporter to build a quick story out of the release without ever cracking the spine of the report.
    The other obvious use for a press release would be trying to hook your report into larger stories or trends beyond law blogging. As you are the Aristotle of legal blogging, I’ll leave the trend-spotting to you.

  • M. Sean Fosmire

    I would say that you should not send a press release without knowing your target audience.
    A press release is a particular kind of communication which is known and understood by traditional media. It simply “does not compute” for new media.
    Given your business, I would suggest:
    AmLaw (several properties, including Law.com)
    WSJ – Legal
    Technology pages or specific authors (Mossberg is the paradigm) for 6-12 specific publications, including NYT, WashPost, WSJ, LAT, ChiTribune, P-I, etc.

  • http://www.constantcontentblog.com Janet Ellen Raasch

    Kevin — If you send a press release, make sure that it is an “e-release.” An e-release includes links to your report, to other relevant sites and background material, to photos, to audio and video (if you have them), and to the email (and social network) addresses of LexBlog folks willing (and able) to comment. In other words, it provides a reporter with all the info he or she needs to write an article/do a report. By making it easy, you really increase the likelihood that the reporter will pick up on your release. The traditional press release is dead; long live the e-release.

  • http://scoop.jdsupra.com/ Adrian Lurssen

    Interesting question.
    Sean Fosmire mentions knowing target audience. Maybe the question should be phrased:
    Do editors and reporters still rely on press releases for new story ideas?
    I’d like to hear the answer from your journalist-readers here.
    I know some that still do, despite the rise of so many other sources for stories. It’s not either/or.
    Kevin, you obviously have an impressive sphere of influence. If you wanted to reach beyond it, given the relative low cost of sending a release, it probably makes sense to add it to the list. Depends on who you are trying to reach – and the story you’re pitching.
    (Also: I think so many press releases are color-by-number type affairs. Hardly worth the time or money. I think the days of a well-crafted release with an interesting hook, that really thinks about an editor’s needs – and the interests of his/her readers – … I don’t think those days are over quite yet.)

  • Melinda Rodrigues

    Kevin — Thanks for asking the question – and,thanks to everyone who as answered, so far! I am in the same boat having just started rethinking in-house PR. Social Media has affected the way we market ourselves and gain publicity. Just the same way as we are now referring to social media as inbound marketing, perhaps we can look at it as inbound publicity, as well.