A press release is a written communication that claim to report on an event, circumstance or occurrence by a third party, and is provided to the news media for the purpose of promotion. Business, organizational or personal press releases are different from a news article in that a news article is a compilation of facts developed by journalists and then published as news content within a given media outlet.
A press release, on the other hand, is designed to be sent to journalists and or media outlets (newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, etc.) in order to encourage them (the reporter or actual media outlet) to develop news articles on the subject. A press release is generally biased toward the objectives of the press release’s author and is most often viewed as raw materials by the media when creating news content.
Since the advent of the Internet the lines between “news” as compared to a press release are getting blurred, but the purpose of a press release, within its related format, is to reach out to the media to get them to report on a particular message, with secondary “direct to readership” benefits associated with overall Internet based publicity.
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