Write Press Releases That Generate Real Media  🔗 **Source:** [Write Press Releases That Generate Real Media](https://share.snipd.com/episode/c55a7481-58c5-4240-b357-10f91d435d73) ## Highlights - **Syndication Feeds Create Fake Visibility** - Syndication feeds create illusionary visibility that rarely reaches real humans. - Mickie Kennedy explains many services replicate releases to subdomains, producing links but no earned media or journalist attention. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy So I think the biggest change I've seen is the proliferation of noise in the PR space. There is a lot of, I guess you'd call them syndication feeds where for $49 or $119, press release gets replicated on a bunch of websites, but it's usually like a subdomain or a folder on The website. And if you go to the website and you do a search for your company, it won't show up. So, you know, humans aren't actually seeing this and it's more of just a, I don't know, an ego lift. And it's gotten to the point that, you know, people don't recognize the opportunity of what a proper newswire is. In the U.S., it's largely a duopoly between Businesswire, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and TR Newswire. And TR Newswire is the oldest and largest, and they also charge, they both charge quite a bit, being a duopoly, around $1,800 for a 600-word press release to go out nationally. That being said, all the releases that go out through e-releases go out nationally, and it's probably about 25% the cost of that. The caveat is you have to be a small business or entrepreneur. Basically, the type of customer that PR Newswire's sales team has no interest in pursuing, and that's sort of what I act as a co-op for small businesses and entrepreneurs. And we move about 30, right now we're moving about 10,000 press releases a year. Altogether, we've worked with over 30, I think right now around 32, 33,000 clients that we've helped. And so we're moving a lot of volume. And as a result, we're really helping people. But if there are people who have used the other services, then they'll do a press release with us and they'll actually say, we had less impact with you. And I'm like, well, I see you got no earned media and you got no earned media with them. Like, oh no, we got picked up by 200 links. And I'm like, where? And they're just the syndication links. And I'm like, wrote an article about you. These are all the press release replicated on a bunch of syndication websites. ([Time 0:02:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3f40de5a-3104-4ccf-b15a-bc97f7f0c0dc)) - **Earned Media Gains Value In The AI Era** - Earned media now carries more weight because AI and search favor credible, journalist-written sources. - Kennedy notes authoritative trade outlets and journalist articles become signals that drive visibility and real opportunities. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy Looking for stuff and AI is leaning on, you know, credible sources. And believe me when I tell you it's not this subdomain on a website that no one knows. It's, you know, if you're in a waste management space and you've been picked up in Waste News, which is the industry standard publication, and they've written about you doing something Exciting, the AI as well as the search engines are going to know that that's a very relevant publication. And as a result, you're going to stand out. And, you know, that, let's just take that one as an example. I mentioned it because I had a client who did a press release about them where they build facilities, municipalities, and it's everything, nuts and bolts from waste as well as recycling And you know a city orders it and there's nothing else they handle everything they work with the contractors and they build out a complete facility and very you know there's nobody really Doing that and so they sent that press release out they got one article in waste news magazine it's like the perfect magazine but it was just one article. They were contacted by a city in Australia. And within six months, they were under contract to build two facilities in Australia. And it was, I think, over 30 or $40 million from one article. And so, and, you know, they'll continue to get leads and recognition for that. ([Time 0:05:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/df0f268f-78c0-4d47-96b1-a0c39f6384d7)) - **Trade Article Turned Into A $30M Contract** - A single article in the right trade publication produced a major international contract. - Kennedy recounts a waste-management client whose one Waste News story led to $30–$40M in Australian contracts. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy I mentioned it because I had a client who did a press release about them where they build facilities, municipalities, and it's everything, nuts and bolts from waste as well as recycling And you know a city orders it and there's nothing else they handle everything they work with the contractors and they build out a complete facility and very you know there's nobody really Doing that and so they sent that press release out they got one article in waste news magazine it's like the perfect magazine but it was just one article. They were contacted by a city in Australia. And within six months, they were under contract to build two facilities in Australia. And it was, I think, over 30 or $40 million from one article. And so, and, you know, they'll continue to get leads and recognition for that. And that's what happens with Erdner Media. ([Time 0:06:26](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ed19cff1-df90-4dbd-b57d-7d2467faf777)) - **Play Contrarian To Find Newsworthy Angles** - Play contrarian and hunt industry blind spots to create newsworthy angles. - Kennedy suggests brainstorms and asking peers at trade shows to surface trends journalists haven't reported yet. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy Have to, you know, sort of put your thinking cap on. You have to play the contrarian. You have to look at different angles. You have to think and talk to people. Like if we were at a trade show or conference, what are the things you'd want to ask people right now? Have you noticed that this is happening with your company or is it just mine? Those are the things that are ripe for bringing out because often these are industry blind spots that the industry is not reporting on yet, but you've noticed this trend and now you're Looking for verification from someone else. And if you can get that verification, they're like, yeah, I'm seeing that too. You can break that and that puts you in control for getting that news out there. And I've had that work really well, especially for clients that traditionally aren't very newsworthy. And there was a local carpet company, New Jersey, and in talking to them during a brainstorm, we asked who their biggest enemy was, and they said, it's the big box home improvement stores. And not only are they our biggest enemy, they give consumers a really poor product and a poor experience, and this is why. And so we did a press release about that and they got picked up in almost every floor trade publication. No one had discussed it ever before. And yeah, yet it was something that really excited everybody. ([Time 0:09:17](https://share.snipd.com/snip/af727341-f596-4679-b237-560edf885b85)) - **Carpet Company Used An Enemy Narrative** - A local New Jersey carpet company used an enemy narrative to win coverage. - Kennedy describes press releases attacking big-box home improvement stores that picked up widely in floor trade publications. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy And there was a local carpet company, New Jersey, and in talking to them during a brainstorm, we asked who their biggest enemy was, and they said, it's the big box home improvement stores. And not only are they our biggest enemy, they give consumers a really poor product and a poor experience, and this is why. And so we did a press release about that and they got picked up in almost every floor trade publication. No one had discussed it ever before. And yeah, yet it was something that really excited everybody. And we continued to milk that cow for a few more weeks, talking about different ways of which this company, you know, targets and markets against the big box of improvement stores and Brings home the value of why having seasoned people install your carpet rather than Home Depot going to get a list of saying, here's the list of people who have a certification for home Improvement license in our state. And that's the only qualification that Home Depot and Lowe's uses. ([Time 0:09:58](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7e3ccd90-cb9f-4dbc-a26b-1f72de0d9442)) - **Put The Spotlight On Your Customer** - Spotlight customers instead of self to create a compelling story arc. - Kennedy recommends featuring a beta customer with dramatic results and including a strong quote to raise stakes for journalists. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy You talk about a new product or service, you get greedy and you want to put the spotlight on you, but often you're not the most interesting story. But if you had someone who beta tested your product or software and they had an amazing outcome, sometimes putting the spotlight on them and saying, we have this new product or service. Here's a company that used it three years in. They lost money every year. Looks like they're going to be one of the casualties of these companies that fail in the first five years of business. And by using our software solution to write better invoices that are more profitable, they're now projected to have their first profit ever. And then you have a quote by them and it's like that shows the stakes and it makes it so much more intriguing and interesting for an audience. And a journalist is at the end of the day, doesn't care about whether this is going to make a strong article for you, but is it going to make an intriguing and interesting article that their Audience is going to want to listen to or read? And that's the biggest metric. What, you know, sometimes I say you have to take what you want and that's the pill. And sometimes you got to put it in cheese to get the journalist to swallow it. And, you know, what is that magic thing that you're going to do? And sometimes putting the spotlight on others. It's really just creating a compelling story arc because naturally journalists like to write in a story arc. ([Time 0:11:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d507e9d8-c87f-464c-9c46-4eda76315a05)) - **Send Newswire Only For Strategic Releases** - Use a newswire to reach journalists but only for meaningful, strategic releases. - Kennedy warns against blasting trivial announcements and says newswires are cleaner than inbox pitches despite higher cost. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy So I think that it's one of the cases where going over a Newswire now is more important than ever. And it sucks that it's in a duopoly environment because it's expensive. You know, that being said, the Newswire is very clean. And so if you go into your login on PR Newswire, you have an industry feed that you signed up for. And you can actually tailor it to exclude, you know, press releases with certain keywords, make sure that you capture and pin certain press releases that mention certain keywords That are really important to you. And so it's the opposite of their inbox. You know, media databases have become prolific over the last 20 years. And, you know, if you're a golf club company who spent $10,000 for a yearly license and you sent to 2,400, you know, people who cover golf and they all passed, you now start talking yourself Into, well, you know, bankers and financial people like to play golf. So let's send it to financial analysts and reporters. And it's like, they'll never cover golf clubs. But, you know, that's happening in every industry. People are talking themselves because it costs nothing to just hit a few keys and blast to everybody. And so I find that with everybody, but perhaps local media, email has become a really difficult way to reach journalists. And I think that the Newswire is a better way to reach them. You just have to make sure that, you know, when you're spending money to go over Newswire, even if it's a reduced price with us, that you're really playing with something that's strategic And you're not doing a press release that's like, hey, we hired Judy as the new HR associate or something like that. It's a meaningful press release. ([Time 0:14:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/54100208-a57b-4ec3-81d1-1012f37be9dc)) - **Use AI For Structure Not Story Ideas** - Use AI to structure and iterate press releases, not to pick the story topic. - Kennedy suggests asking AI for structure, headlines, opening paragraphs, and refining paragraph-by-paragraph to finish in ~12 minutes. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy I never let AI decide what to write on. AI, you know, I tell people the metric is about 97% of press releases that even go through the newswire where people paid $1,700 plus to go out naturally. They do not generate earned media. So what I tell people to do is focus on the 3% of press releases that do get pickup because there's patterns in there. As the story arc is an important one, you know, building in an industry survey or study. That's something anyone can do. Nobody owns an industry. You can do the legwork, get a survey in your industry, partner with a small or independent trade association, not the big one. They'll often, because it's a smaller independent one, they don't get a lot of love from the media. So they see it as a win-win themselves and say more than two thirds of the time, they will cooperate with you to send that out to their members. And, you know, focus not on all the questions, but what was the most, the biggest surprise or of that survey that you did? And then focus on that as the press release. I then ask AI, hey, I've got this idea for a press release. Here's me. Here's my company. Do not write the press release. Give me the structure of what you feel would be the perfect press release on this subject. It'll probably write the press release anyways. And I go, okay, I see you wrote the press release. Now give me just the structure. And then finally it gives me the structure. I say, OK, give me eight headline options for this press release. And then if I find one that I really like, I'll get it. Otherwise, we'll refine one. It's like number three comes closest, but I want to make sure that this is in there. And then I say, OK, now give me three opening paragraph options using this target headline. And this way takes longer. It might take the most it's ever taken me to do a whole press release is 12 minutes. So you don't get it in 30 seconds. But if you take it top down, paragraph by paragraph, and then focus like, hey, in the second paragraph, I want to make sure I have a quote. And I want to say something very powerfully, you know, make sure active verbs are used and that it really stands out. And, you know, if you're comfortable being a contrarian, you could even say you can make it a contrarian quote or something like that. So, like, you know, let's say you did a survey of graphic designers and 80 percent believe that they're going to be replaced by AI in five years. Could say, you could disagree with that and say, hey, while this survey shows a lot of people are scared of the industry, I think this is a bit alarmist. And I do believe that those who don't know how to start incorporating AI into their graphic tools toolbox, they're going to be at a huge disadvantage in the coming years. And, you know, you're not necessarily agreeing with what the survey said, but it makes you seem very thoughtful and rational and, you know, those types of things. And then, you know, just going top down until you get what you, you know, get it finished. AI is very good at writing the press release, but the ideas behind it, it's not very good at. It'll make a press release like you see out there and you're like, this is as good as that one. Well, that one probably didn't. ([Time 0:16:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c452df35-2988-4db5-adb7-c41eedeb3761)) - **Create A Survey To Generate Newsworthy Data** - Run an industry survey or study to create press-release-worthy data. - Kennedy recommends partnering with small trade associations to distribute surveys and then focus the release on the most surprising finding. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy As the story arc is an important one, you know, building in an industry survey or study. That's something anyone can do. Nobody owns an industry. You can do the legwork, get a survey in your industry, partner with a small or independent trade association, not the big one. They'll often, because it's a smaller independent one, they don't get a lot of love from the media. So they see it as a win-win themselves and say more than two thirds of the time, they will cooperate with you to send that out to their members. And, you know, focus not on all the questions, but what was the most, the biggest surprise or of that survey that you did? And then focus on that as the press release. ([Time 0:17:17](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b56f7815-5c75-4be7-82e9-d67cd4b9ccdb)) - **Brainstorm Contrarian Takes With AI** - Brainstorm contrarian takes with AI to surface provocative but usable angles. - Kennedy recommends asking AI for several contrarian ideas, then choosing one that won't alienate your customers but stands out to journalists. Transcript: Mickie Kennedy Absolutely. I mean, the research capability of AI is so good. And a lot of people also don't brainstorm with it. It's like, hey, what are some contrarian ideas that we could use for my industry and just brainstorm them? And maybe it gives you five or six. And you're sitting there saying, well, I would never feel comfortable saying that in my industry. But maybe number four is one that I could get behind and I wouldn't alienate my customer base. But, you know, being a contrarian is a really great way to stand out with the media because so many times everybody agrees in one direction. And as a result, stories get written that are one sided. And, you know, believe it or not, outside of politics, journalists like to be fair and balanced. So if you're the only one raising your hand and saying, hey, electric cars are bad for the environment. They're bad for right now. You know, you know, taking a lithium battery fire and getting it under control often involves 12 fire trucks and 50,000 gallons of water and it burns to X amount of degree. Plus, we don't know what we're going to do with these batteries at the end of their life. Maybe we could hit pause for a few years until we figure some things out before we embrace electric cars so strongly. And that way, you stand the likelihood of every time they discuss this subject, you get plugged in as that rational contrarian viewpoint. ([Time 0:20:36](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0f973455-9e6a-4032-bbd8-14aeb0f1b524))