How many times have we heard visionary PR professionals herald the death of the press release as an outmoded communication mechanism? I've railed before that PR people as a breed just "don't get" the Internet. Further evidence fell upon us today.

Both PR Newswire and BusinessWire — basically the only two wire services that matter in the world of PR — refused to publish our silly little press release. Why? As far as I can make out, because it was silly. Apparently press releases are no laughing matter. (I just got an email from one PR blogger who was distinctly not amused. Maybe if more PR people were on the receiving end of hundreds of press releases they would better see the humor in all this.)

BusinessWire told me, "it's not a press release." Not a press release? What exactly is a press release? I would think that, by definition, paying them to issue it over PR Newswire or BusinessWire makes it a press release. But apparently, trying to be funny disqualifies it from being a press release.

The PR Newswire folks, meanwhile, complained that "some of the content in your release was not appropriate," among other objections. I called back and even offered to soften the "pooch" line, but no dice. She as much as told me, "It's not going to happen, we're not publishing your press release no matter what you do to it," or words to that effect.

I take it all back: the PR industry really is the engine of innovation in the marketing world these days. Or, at least, that what the headline of a properly formatted press release stuttering in across my fax machine would have us believe…

UPDATE:
Michael O'Connor Clarke, SVP at Weber Shandwick (Canada), renews my faith in the profession, more because he called the wire services "wussies" than because he called our press release "probably the best news release of 2003, if not the best of all time," though that didn't hurt, either.

:-)