The one-off PR misconception

A press release can be a useful way to put a story in front of journalists. But on its own, it is rarely a PR strategy.

There’s a familiar pattern. A business has something to announce, perhaps a new appointment, a product launch, a company milestone, a report or some research. A press release is written, sent to a carefully selected media list, and then everyone waits to see what happens.

Sometimes it works. A journalist picks up the story, a few publications run it, and the business gets the coverage it was hoping for. But what happens the following week?

The press release has done its job, but the business still has the same challenge it had before. How does it stay visible? How does it build relationships with the media? How does it establish credibility and give people a reason to remember the brand? That is where the difference between sending out news and doing and maintaining PR regularly really starts to show.

PR is much bigger than a press release

It is easy to use the terms interchangeably, but PR and press releases are not the same thing.

A press release is one tool within a wider PR strategy. PR, or public relations, is about shaping how a business is seen and understood, and finding opportunities to build its reputation through the media, its own channels and wider public conversations.

That might involve media relations and press coverage, but it can also include thought leadership, expert commentary, interviews, events, campaigns, reputation management, and corporate communications. It is also about building relationships with journalists and understanding where a business can contribute something useful to a wider conversation.

A press release might announce what your business has done. PR looks at the bigger picture. It considers what your business is known for, what it has to offer and contribute, how it builds credibility, and how it maintains its reputation over time.

A press release can be part of the story. PR is about finding and building stories around your business.

A press release is a starting point, not the whole story

It’s important to remember that a press release is a starting point, not the whole story. The strongest PR rarely comes from sending one announcement and moving on. It comes from understanding what is interesting about a business, finding the stories within it, and knowing how, when and where those stories might work.

A single announcement can often have more than one angle

A new appointment might be relevant to a local business publication because of the company’s growth, to a trade title because of the individual’s expertise and to a national journalist because of the wider issue the person is going to be working on.

Likewise, a piece of company research should not necessarily live and die as a PDF or a press release. The findings might provide a journalist with a statistic for a wider story. They might give a spokesperson something useful to comment on. They might form the basis of an opinion piece, an interview or a wider campaign.

The story does not end when the release is sent. In many cases, that is when the more interesting work begins.

What are journalists looking for?

Journalists do not need more press releases – they need good stories. At Seren, our team understands this particularly well because our roots are in stories.

Between us, we have worked across the UK media landscape, from local newspapers and regional newsrooms to major national and international media organisations. Many of our team began their careers as journalists, editors, broadcasters, creatives, or digital specialists.

That experience changes how we approach PR. We know what it is like to be on the receiving end of a press release. We know that journalists are working to tight deadlines, looking for relevance and deciding quickly whether something is worth their attention. We also know that the best stories are not always the ones with the biggest companies or the biggest budgets behind them.

Often, they are simply stories with something to say. That might be a genuinely interesting development within a business. It might be an expert with a useful perspective on an issue already in the news. It might be a local story with a much bigger human angle. Or it might be a piece of original research that reveals something people had not considered before.

Finding that story is more valuable than simply producing another release, just for the sake of it!

Why regular PR matters

PR works best when it is maintained rather than switched on whenever there is an announcement to make.

Regular PR gives a business the opportunity to stay part of relevant conversations, rather than waiting until it has something to announce. It means looking at what is happening in the news and in your industry, spotting opportunities for your experts to contribute and making sure your business has something useful to say. Additionally, it also helps build familiarity.

Journalists are more likely to recognise a business that consistently provides useful expertise or interesting stories than one that appears in their inbox once every 12 months with a press release.

The same applies to your wider audience. One piece of coverage might introduce someone to your business. Consistent visibility helps reinforce who you are, what you know and why people should trust you. That does not mean creating news for the sake of it or sending a press release every week. In fact, it can mean doing the opposite.

Good PR is about knowing when there is a story worth telling, when there is not, and what other opportunities might be available in between. Sometimes that means responding quickly to something in the news. Sometimes it means putting forward an expert for an interview. Sometimes it means developing a campaign around an issue your audience cares about. Sometimes it means simply building a relationship with a journalist before you need anything from them – all of that sits under the PR umbrella.

PR should not start and end with company news

One of the biggest misconceptions about PR is that a business needs to have constant announcements to have something to say. Spoiler, it does not! Good PR is about quality over quantity and knowing whether a story is genuinely worth sharing. Does it add something to how your business is seen? Does it strengthen your reputation, offer something useful or interesting to your audience, or have enough impact to make people take notice? If not, there may be a better PR opportunity to focus on.

So, is a one-off press release enough?

If all you need is to announce one piece of news, a press release may be exactly what you need. But if the ambition is to build your profile, establish expertise, earn trust and create a stronger presence in the media, one press release is unlikely to be enough.

PR is an ongoing process. It is about finding and developing stories, maintaining relationships, spotting opportunities, and keeping your business relevant to the conversations that impact your business.

That is why we believe PR should be something you do and maintain regularly, rather than something you switch on when you have an announcement.

So, if you are wondering whether your business needs another press release, perhaps the better question is what is the story you should be telling next?

Find out how our team can help you build a regular, story-led PR strategy. Contact us today, we’d love to talk to you!