The Death of The Press Release?

The death of the press release? It appears so. This was the topic this week unveiled by the New Communications Forums in Santa Rosa CA. The heart of their conclusion is that traditional press releases as we have known them have morphed into marketing tools as the barriers to entry to the press release game have been eased. Now, you don't have to be a journalist, you don't have to be a viable company, it doesn't even have to really be "news" in the sense that we've known it for eons. Anyone with a broadband connection and the ability to craft a sort of "quasi-news" item can play.

So what does this bode for the press release? It may go the way of the banner ad, and become invisible to searchers eyes. No doubt if the trend continues and the marketers proceed to deluge the medium with thinly-disguised ads, then the search engines will decide to adjust their algorithms to somehow weed them out, and dilution will be the order of the day. This only confirms in my mind that social media marketing tips for the foreseeable future will include how we traditionally promote both products as well as companies.