Public relations has changed significantly over the years.  One traditional element of public relations that has remained a significant part of the industry is press releases.  Although press releases are still prominent, like much of the PR industry, they have undergone changes.

PR News Online discusses the shift from traditional press releases to online press releases.  Previously, press releases were issued when big news was underway.  Thanks to online press releases the rules have changed and organizations can now find good reasons other than big news to issue a press release.Targeting press releases has also changed thanks to the shift from traditional to online.  Instead of targeting just a few journalists, PR professionals can now target their releases directly to buyers.

Online press releases also require that PR professionals write with “key-word rich copy,” so that press releases are easily discoverable.  Online press releases also allow for the ability to include links that take readers directly where you want them to go.  This makes it easier than ever before to solicit action from a press release.

The reason for this shift is due to the change in media consumption over the past several years.  Between 1994 and 2004 there was a 24.6% decline in the readership of newspaper and a 23.4% decline in viewership of local television.  We now consume our news online.  80 million people turn to the internet for their news and more than two-thirds of the global online community access social networks and blogs.  PR professionals must adjust their strategy to these changes to get their news consumed.

According to PR News Online, “organizations are now able to use their news to build online visibility, increase rankings on search engines and appear on highly trafficked news sites.”

The essence of format of information has drastically changed due to the shift in the way we consume news.  Online news can now be characterized by four major trends: conversational, multimedia enabled, interactive and community/user driven.

Rules regarding press releases have changed significantly and all these changes need to be considered when drafting press releases.  Public relations professionals should now make releases available to everyone on the internet, use multimedia instead of just text, send news to both traditional media and bloggers, make releases available online forever, consider media hits, SEO and web traffic analytics.