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PRESS RELEASES FROM HELL and How to Fix Them
The Traditional Press Release Is Dead! The Made-for-the-Internet Release is News Now.
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Free PR Web Service Not So Free

Wanting to see if Google News had plugged the fake press release hole I posted about yesterday, I turned one of my posts into a press release and sent it out on I-Newswire and on PR Web. Both offer free press release distribution, but I upgraded my PR Web release, which goes out tomorrow, to a $40 level in an effort to assure my inclusion in Google News. (It's not indexed in Google News yet.)

PR Web's site says it's run on the basis of Fair Commerce. It's free service isn't so free. The site says:

As PR Web™ grew and many Internet companies began to fail we introduced a new concept to Internet eCommerce. We call it FairCommerce. FairCommerce is a system that puts services at your disposal while allowing you to decide the value to be placed on those services. For this reason we do not have established delivery prices at PR Web™. Our system has been built on the voluntary contributions of our users. We ask our users to take into consideration what similar services cost and contribute accordingly. It's fair.

Ok, that sounds like an interesting idea. But then today I got this email from them that makes me wonder just how fair PR Web's system really is:

RE: What's Next Blog: Small, Smart Boutiques Trump 'Clueless' Big Ad Agencies in Using Blogs in Consumer Marketing

Congratulations. Your press release has received an editorial score of 4. [they don't say out of what? or who thinks it's so great] This score tells us that you have taken time to carefully craft your press release. Now let us help you optimize your distribution.

Because of the quality of your press release you qualify for advanced distribution options including.

1. eMediawire distribution
2. Yahoo! & Google News Inclusion
3. Next day distribution
4. Additional category selections
5. And much more...

We want to make sure that you take advantage of these offerings. Please call us toll free at 866-640-NEWS so that we can help you maximize your distribution.

Alternatively you can log into your account here and upgrade your release to the $80 level in order to access many of these features right away.

Sincerely,
Mario Bonilla
PRWEB.COM

So my $40 release won't get me these features? How do I know I'll get them for $120? Who evaluated my release, and what criterion did they use? Why doesn't the site say that you have to pay more to get the features they promise? Does everyone get this email? Do some people get asked to contribute more money? Or Less?

Smells funny to me. What's it smell like to you? Posted by B.L. Ochman

Categories: B.L. Ochman, Commentary, Public Relations, Worst Practices

BL Ochman | Mar 16 06 3:17 | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Thank God.

I was researching this very issue the other day for my post, and saw your news release in the i-Newswire stack.

I nearly lost it.

Surely B.L. thinks the traditional news release is dead! I can't believe she's stooping this low!

Thanks for restoring my faith in your method and your madness.

Posted by: Ike at March 16, 2006 10:04 PM

Just because one fool peed in the beach, you do not stop taking bath in the sea. Its sad that a mad youngster misused free press release and has discredited i-newswire. Google is playing big daddy and black listing i-newswire. If the youngster had written that he was hired by Doogle Corporation in Rajasthan as Security Expert would any one have bothered to verify? If the mad cap wrote that Rajesh Bachan died dancing to a holi song in Bollywood would anyone have bothered? Today society is mature enough to know what to believe what not to believe, whom to believe and whom not to believe, when to belive and when not to beieve, where to believe and where not to believe.
Let Google and the net community wake up to realities and not talk of non existent values in journalism etc.

Posted by: BR Natarajan at March 16, 2006 10:28 PM

ike: hey, i wrote a book about the death of the traditional news release! i wanted to see what was really going on, so i tried to trace the steps of the people who had already foiled Google. i_Newswire may be blacklisted on google. we'll see about PR Web.

Posted by: B.L. Ochman at March 16, 2006 11:36 PM

BR, you've just made an important point.

How many "Doogle Corp." releases are already floating out there? How many faux Bollywood death notices are in the pipeline?

How many fake companies are bilking people out of money based on bogus news releases that were trusted because Google News sniffed them out?

When Google News aggregates information from sources with by-lines and an interest in maintaining a good reputation, we all win. When Google News can be compromised by a source that has no measures of accountability for authors, then it makes one wonder exactly how many people have been defecating in the surf.

When you gather information from blogs, do you lend more credence to the posts and responses from people with names, or to the anonymous comments? This Google News situation is the equivalent of discovering that anonymous comments carry the same weight -- and that is disturbing.

I hope they don't just dump i-Newswire and call it over, I want them to examine the integrity and accountability of all of their sources. That's what separates Google News from Google.

Posted by: Ike at March 17, 2006 8:16 AM

I just paid $40 for a press release and got the very same message. I'm not sure I understand it. I get the features for free or I have to pay another $80? I see they've already expanded the categories that my PR is in, but are the other featires already actiavted? If so, why ask me to log-in. I'm a tad confused!

Posted by: Steve at June 17, 2006 5:20 PM

Try having a look at http://www.freeprweb.com since they say they at FreePRWeb are 100% free

Posted by: Jimmy at January 5, 2007 11:32 AM

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About BL Ochman

Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations

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