Years ago when I worked at a daily newspaper, the photo editor would each morning sort through the pile of press releases on his desk. On busy days, he would simply throw all of them in the garbage without reading any.
“Sorry folks, we’ve got real news today,” he would say as he pushed all the press releases into the trash.
On slow news days, he would look through the press releases and summarize the bad ones as: “Help me make more money,” “Help me sell more crap,” or “Give me some free advertising.”
“Don’t these people know we’re a newspaper? Where’s the news?” he would say as he dumped the rejected press releases into the garbage.
The problem was that many press releases were about companies asking for free publicity or free advertising. Most releases are sent out when a business wants something from the news media. This is exactly the wrong thing to do.
Press releases should be about a company giving something to the news media. That something is newsworthy and timely information.
Newsworthiness is judged from the news media’s point of view, not the company’s. Just because a company has a new product or service that doesn’t mean it’s newsworthy.
News value is partly determined by the time (e.g. Christmas products aren’t newsworthy in April) but it’s mostly determined by the story around the product, service or company (e.g. Christmas products could be newsworthy in April with the right story).
The job of a publicist, public relations agency or corporate communications person is to find the right story. This is where a background in journalism is very important. Journalists know not only how to find an interesting story but also how to craft the right story for the right time.
The same goes for press release photography. A press release is only as good as its accompanying pictures. It goes to reason that the best public relations photographer for the job is one with a background in journalism. This type of photographer is trained to tell a story with each picture.
