BusinessWire “Groks” The Social Media Press Release
In an earlier post, I took wire services such as BusinessWire, PR Newswire, PRWeb, etc., to task for their lack of familiarity and competence with Web 2.0 functions such as Technorati tags, del.icio.us, RSS, etc. To be fair, each is making strides in their own right, but no single service is 100% ready for the demands of a PR 2.0 world.
The times they are a-changin’. This morning I met with Steve Messick, the Chief Information Officer of BusinessWire (BW), for the express purpose of walking him through the Social Media Press Release template. Throughout our chat, Steve nodded his head vigorously: he totally "groks" it. He couldn’t go too deep into the details, but for now, suffice it to say that we can expect to see BW (at least) take big steps forward in the months ahead.
Steve was particularly intrigued by our recommendations re: Digg, Tailrank, etc. This was one area where he seemed to be in unfamiliar territory. But as I explained how services such as Digg could help elevate the humble press release into a "news story" all its own, I daresay I saw his eyes light up with a new understanding of how the PR 2.0 era could rock the wire services’ world. In a good way.
This is important to the PR industry: the wire services will continue to be a primary mechanism for PR agents to distribute news to the rest of the mediasphere. The wire services are well-regarded and have long-standing, embedded, proprietary relationships with the world’s traditional and new media outlets. If the wire services don’t embrace these new PR 2.0 tools, it would make things tougher for us to make communications innovations.
Meeting with BusinessWire’s CIO was confirmation, though, that even the oldest dog of the newswire industry is working hard to learn new tricks.
Tags: social+media, businesswire, public+relations, pr
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to think that they’re not on top of it is totally naive. Between BW and PRN you’re talking about approx. 300 million in annual revenues from news release distribution. They don’t need us telling them that they need to adapt or die. They’re on it…trust me.
These kinds of posts remind me just how arrogant some of us blog evangelists really think we are…as if Business Wire and PR Newswire haven’t already figured it out and are making investment to meet the new “social” web demands.
We’ve had RSS in our online newsrooms for 2 years. Problem is…about 5% of journalists actually use RSS readers! Go figure.
Dee – I agree that the wire services are thinking about these social media concepts. But I also think that they are falling short in some areas, and unaware of others.
For example, for now, anyway, BW can’t embed links in a release. And as I noted, the CIO of BW did not know about the memetrackers and how they could literally transform some aspects of the wire services’ business.
Arrogance on my part? I am trying to be part of the solution BEFORE it becomes a real problem.
Todd, as you know I’ve been following your blog and this whole discussion about creating a new press release format that embraces the many and varied ways in which journos and others receive and process information. There are some who dislike the idea and others who are as enthusiastic about moving in that direction as you.
It occurs to me, however, that the idea that a new “standard” needs to be developed is antithetical to the original concept.
What I love about your template is that it encompasses those new ways of communicating; but rather than look at what you’ve created as a template, I think it would be more fitting to think of it as an example.
I think the effort undertaken by you and Edelman and Foremski, etc. may be a mistake insofar as it aims to establish an industry standard. It’s the standard, copycat mentality that has made the typical press release the dull instrument it is today.
You’ve accomplished much by inspiring this discussion, and I encourage you to continue to push your vision. But consider what may come of your brainchild if it is crammed into the pigeonhole of standardization.
Mike
On the one hand I totally agree, Mike – that was one reason we called our thingamajig a “template” – i.e., “start here, make your own.”
On the other hand, though, my guess is that there are plenty of PR folks and even media who would appreciate some sort of standard format.
As in all things, “somewhere in the middle lies the truth.”