Puffbox

Steve Rubel makes some fair points about the future of press releases. I haven’t made a secret of my firm belief that press officers’ days are numbered, nor of my dream of ‘taking down’ a Whitehall press office. We’ll still need media relations managers, press conference organisers, cuttings reviewers and communications writers. But it simply won’t be the all-powerful press office of old.

I’ve spent a lot of time in press offices in the last couple of years. Many incoming phone calls, perhaps the majority, are met with the response: ‘have you looked at the website?’ I’m sure press officers know which way the wind is blowing. But I’m equally sure that, having spent years looking down on the ‘nerds’ in the web team, they won’t be keen to admit defeat.

‘Press releases’ (note the quotes) are as good a starting point as any for a discussion thread. It makes sense to tie any press release mechanism into the ‘right now’ search engines like Technorati. All of these are good things… and as Steve points out, they’re going to happen anyway, so you might as well be part of it. The organisation might even profit from doing so.