In the battle for attention, corporate communications teams are increasingly turning to creating their own content as a more cost-effective way to build brands and sales, writes Sophy Buckley
What do punk rocker Sid Vicious, silver-screen cowboy John Wayne, hotelier mogul Conrad Hilton and the press release have in common? Their deaths were all announced in 1979.
As far as I know, no one doubts the demise of the first three, but the fate of the press release is less certain. 1979 was the year Bill Sledzik, associate professor of media and journalism at Kent State University in the US, reports that he was first asked about the demise of the press release. But 20 years later, when I was a reporter at the Financial Times, they were still alive and kicking.
Paper and digital, press releases poured into my inbox with tedious regularity. From CEO announcements to new product features, store/branch/warehouse openings, or the findings of a survey, they strained to spark my interest. And of course, they were de rigueur for listed companies wanting to spin any development material to their valuation. But even back then, nine out of 10 would go straight into the bin.
Fast forward to today, and the way people seek and receive information has undergone a step change. Increasingly, companies can – and do – communicate directly with their audiences through corporate websites and social media channels, without needing to go through an intermediary such as a journalist. This has transformed the media landscape. At the same time, a steep decline in the number of working journalists also means fewer people to send releases to. The result? A shift from some comms teams away from press releases to other ways of effectively grabbing audience attention.
Overcoming AI slop
RELX, for example, the FTSE 100 technology and business analytics group, put out just five in 2025, all relating to regulated announcements that companies listed on the stock exchange must publicise in a non-exclusive way. “That’s pretty much all the company uses them for,” says Laure Lagrange, head of RELX external communications. “We prefer to use our limited resources on storytelling that has journalistic value. In the age of AI slop, that matters more to us.”
Lagrange says the lack of control over how press release content is subsequently used, the cost of producing them and the amount of time they take to write and get approved were all nails in their coffin. “Lots of times, a press release was just a waste,” she says. “I’d rather do something more productive.”
Instead, RELX publishes around 50 long-form stories a year on its own platforms. Recent topics include generative AI and the law, the personal and financial costs of romance scams and RELX solutions that are shaping a more sustainable future. Lagrange says this content receives on average more than one million reads across a year, creating a high return on investment (ROI).
“When you add in the cost of creating the press release, distributing it and following up, we’re getting much better ROI when we post content ourselves on our website, LinkedIn, YouTube or Substack. We’re also seeing this content surface in the output provided by the large language models,” she says, adding that her team’s success has inspired others across the RELX business to adopt the same content strategy. “With paid advertising, they generated 400,000 reads on one story. Not bad for a B2B business.”
Declining health
Susanna Voyle, deputy chair at PR consultancy Headland, agrees that fundamental changes in how newspapers operate, including reductions in pagination, have seriously damaged the health of the press release. She says: “In an age when ‘paper of record’ reporting of business news has died, using your own channels to reach all the stakeholders – including investors – who might be interested in that news becomes increasingly important. It also allows stakeholders to find all the detail that might lie beyond a typical ‘news’ lens of the business media.”
Headland still puts out press releases for listed companies it represents when required. But it is also investing in new ways to support clients who want to tell their stories on their own terms. Its recent acquisition of Bladonmore, an international digital, brand and content business, was explained as helping “senior leaders navigate an increasingly complex picture of stakeholder relationships and scrutiny, and a constantly evolving media and digital landscape”.
Elma Peters, global director of communications at battery company Saft, part of TotalEnergies, also agrees that the role of the press release has changed dramatically
“It’s no longer a knee-jerk reaction to an event,” she says. “We put out 12 last year. They were product launches and contract wins to show we’re growing, and maybe we will use them when we hit milestones within a research consortium if there’s a requirement to communicate.
“Most recently, though, rather than write a press release, we made a video for LinkedIn. This fulfilled our consortium commitment to communicate and as a platform for getting our message across LinkedIn has been very successful.”
LinkedIn’s power to reach the right audience is borne out by numbers. Since Peters took up her role in June 2016, Saft’s followers on the platform have jumped from 7,000 to more than 112,000. That’s significantly more people who see quickly when Saft posts a story compared to the limited number of journalists who would receive a press release.
Peters is meticulous about measuring engagement. “It’s huge. I had one new recruit to my team who said she didn’t think our engagement rates were right because they were so high,” she says, pointing out that one LinkedIn post about installing batteries to store energy at its Bordeaux site has had more than 20,400 impressions. “That’s an engagement rate of more than 20 per cent,” she adds, referring to Saft’s follower count.
No wonder her LinkedIn strapline reads: “Creating cool stories about Saft”. Indeed, companies everywhere are redirecting budgets that once went on press releases and their distribution to creating cool content that drives brand recognition and sales.
New world order
My favourite example of this new world order in action involves Specsavers. The popular UK optician brand wanted to raise awareness of hearing loss, as well as promote the fact that it also carries out hearing tests. So it commissioned a survey of the most misheard song lyrics. Think you heard 1980s’ pop icon Rick Astley singing “never gonna run around with dessert spoons” or “you wouldn’t catch nits from any other guy”? You’re not alone. His classic 1987 chart topper Never Gonna Give You Up topped the Specsavers survey – so they got Astley to record a version with all the misheard lyrics. Posted on YouTube and other social media channels including TikTok and Instagram, the response was phenomenal: more than 20 million views in the first eight hours. The story also made it into 95% of the UK’s major media titles and hearing test bookings rose by 1,220%. All without relying on press releases.
The irony is not lost on me. As long as there’s a regulatory need for press releases, investor relations ain’t never gonna give them up. For the rest of the comms world, if they’re not already on life support the press release as a promotional tool is pretty much dead in the water. Now, what’s my LinkedIn password?
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