5 ms·
Ask HN - Are press releases worth the price?
I was looking at the cost of distributing press releases
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/submit-a-press-release/
Why are they so expensive? I mean, all they do is forward your press release to a bunch of publications, and some analytics? They charge 350$ per press release??
What am I missing?
- jtoeman 14y agoIt's an outdated business model fundamentally designed around publicly traded companies. For them, issuing releases on "the wire" is a requirement as a means of distributing news. For a startup, I cannot recommend enough against a wire issuance, unless you are specifically in the financial community (or some other specific niche that I'm not thinking of). You can still "issue" a press release simply by putting it on your blog, emailing it to the press, etc. When I was running my marketing firm (www.stagetwo.com), we probably issued 100+ releases, with less than 5 hitting a wire service.
- staunch 14y agoThey're almost purely vestigial at this point. They may have some small SEO value, but that's about it. Press releases are a vanity. Something for PR firms to charge clients for. Totally useless for small companies.
- ryanriddle 14y agoEstablishing a relationship with a reporter is far better than writing a press release. Dmitry Dragilev, formally of ZURB, wrote an excellent article on how startups (and larger businesses) can do this: http://mashable.com/2012/02/27/how-to-pitch-media/ http://mashable.com/2012/02/27/how-to-pitch-media/
- livestyle 14y agoFiverr.com is your friend ;)
- supersaiyan 14y agoif you're looking to get blacklisted