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📬 In this Edition

Allow me to indulge in a little historical nerdery. At the turn of the 20th Century—1906, to be precise—a passenger train derailed in Atlantic City, killing 50 people. Confronted by such a tragedy, most companies would’ve hidden behind lawyers. But railroad publicist Ivy Lee did something different. He issued a factual statement detailing the unsanitized facts of the incident. It was the world’s first-ever press release.

Fast forward 120 years, and Lee’s corporate fact sheet is doing something he could never have imagined—teaching AI how to answer questions about virtually every business on Earth.

That's one central finding of PR Newswire's latest Global Press Release report. Here's what caught my attention:

AI treats press releases like gospel. Ask ChatGPT about a company's latest product and the response likely comes straight from their press release, sometimes verbatim. Unlike journalists who fact-check and question, AI systems treat wire content as pure truth. For PR professionals, this means your carefully crafted messaging now reaches audiences directly through AI, without the traditional media filter. That's both an opportunity and a responsibility.

Character counts are climbing. Press release headlines that average 76-100 characters now get the most views, up from 51-75 in previous years. Why? AI language models need more context to accurately categorize content. Those extra descriptive words help machines understand not just what you're announcing, but why it matters.

Visual content is now essential. Some 90% of communicators include multimedia in their releases, and for good reason. Modern AI systems process images and video alongside text. Companies sticking to text-only releases are essentially hiding from half the AI ecosystem.

Smart PR pros multiply their efforts. Nine in ten communicators repurpose press release content across other channels—primarily social media, followed by blogs and emails. This isn't laziness; it's strategic. Why craft separate messages when your press release already contains your approved, on-brand narrative? 

Asia leads the pack. The report shows stark regional differences: North American companies average fewer than 25 releases annually, while many in APAC distribute more than 50. Asian firms are also ahead on AI adoption (63% vs 48% in North America) and multimedia creation. 

Press releases still deliver the goods. Despite all the AI disruption, traditional press release benefits haven't disappeared. The report found that 57% of communicators say press releases raise brand visibility, while 39% believe they reinforce industry leadership. Another 35% value the benefits of “SEO/AEO/GEO” (that's Answer Engine Optimization and Generative Engine Optimization—basically SEO for AI); and 28% say releases strengthen relationships with reporters and influencers. 

I’m not sure what Lee would say, but as a fan of the press release (and a journalist who uses them daily), I’m glad to see they’re evolving with the times—or, if you will, on the right track.  

-Alasdair Lane 

As a rule of thumb, I’d give the reporter at least 48 hours for an embargo, which is plenty of time to get editor approvals, ask follow-up questions and contact sources. At some publications where I’ve written, you’re expected to phone someone for every story, even if it’s a routine embargoed announcement. Given tight schedules on both ends, more runway to plan the story makes for a lighter lift with less anxiety. 

If you have all the info you need well in advance of an embargo, don’t hesitate to pitch it to reporters. I like having embargoed stories scheduled weeks before because it makes schedule planning easier and gives me a better idea of my bandwidth in any given week.

Include just the necessary information in a pitch for an embargo. Let the reporter ask questions rather than inundate them with information. Always include who can go on the record about the announcement—and keep the pitch straightforward.

One of my biggest PR pet peeves is when I receive a pitch less than 24 hours before the embargo lifts. It always makes me wonder if my coverage (and that of the publication I represent) was an afterthought. Or did other publications pass on the coverage first? Regardless, why the last-minute pitch? There must be a story behind the story.  

-Elena Cavender

When prospective clients ask Lizzy and Ash “Who do you know in ___ vertical?”, their answer usually goes like this: Good media relationships might get you a reply but only a strong story earns coverage.

Couldn’t agree more.

I almost always open emails from PR people I know. And often I respond. But in fifteen years of journalism, I’ve never written a piece just because I liked the person pitching it. Not once.

If we’ve worked together before and you send me something not quite right, I might explain why it isn’t the best fit for me. Might suggest an alternate angle. Might identify a colleague who’s better placed to take on the piece. But if you’re a stranger who makes the same off-target pitch, there’s a high chance you won’t hear back. 

The most effective comms pros – the ones who consistently land stories – know familiarity helps, but they’re not naive enough to think it seals the deal. Instead, they use that familiarity to be smarter about how they pitch. They pay attention to what I actually cover, tailor their approach and understand the difference between what their client wants to announce and what readers (and I, as the reporter) actually care about.

Good PR is like good journalism—It’s about understanding what matters to your audience. Relationships make the process smoother and more productive for everyone involved. They open doors. But without a compelling story to offer, you’re just standing at that open door making small talk.

-Alasdair Lane

Conscientious comms pros may wonder whether journos spend the slow days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day looking for big stories to pounce upon. Let me be brutally honest. During that time, many of us turn our attention to non-work matters. Long lunches. Deflating after a relentless three-quarters of deadlines and catch-up ball. Shopping lists. Trying in vain to fix defective light strings with that one fudging dead bulb. We exhale, take it easy, and yeah, trawl the e-commerce sites. 

I can see the stern workaholics shaking their heads and hitting the grindstone to complete that ten-part series about the taxpayer burden of pols swiping Kit Kats from the City Hall breakroom. Pity them. The rest of us are human. Full-timers also work long hours without overtime, a practice of questionable legality at best.  

For freelancers, it’s a different story but the same dynamic. Is it an opportunity for PRs? Yes and no and mostly no, I believe. Aside from the chance to catch up on life, many of us resurrect old ideas from the inbox and reel in the deadlines that got away: a groundwork task that usually requires no outside help. Holiday pitches? Forget it. I’ve rarely seen a feel-good food drive pitch or gift guide release that breaks free of the cliche dungeon. 

Instead, do this: Check in with the reporters you care about. Wish them happy holidays. Send them online coffee gift cards to warm their hearts. Throw out your generic holiday cards before they do. 

And the big pitch? Save it. Ask if there’s anything you can help them with. Let them tell you. Their gratitude - and your compassion for their holiday stress - are gifts that keep on giving. 

-Lou Carlozo

😎 Lite, Brite, Tight: The Fall of the Postcard King

Any journalist worth their weight in active verbs knows you don’t become part of the story. But once, I couldn’t help it—even though for a hot, sweaty moment I thought I might get arrested.

The Chicago Tribune assigned me to visit the Curt Teich postcard archives in the northern suburbs. If you’ve ever seen those bursting-with-color cards that declare “GREETINGS FROM PORTLAND!” in curved block letters, you get the gist. When Teich passed in 1974, he left behind the nation’s largest public postcard collection.

I got wind his son was still alive. I asked the archives curator if I could visit him. Awkward silence until she consented … reluctantly. 

The winding driveway and enormous colonnades looked straight from a southern plantation fantasy. I walked what seemed a zillion steps through the cavernous entranceway. (Sloping dual staircases? Check.) Then I found the elderly scion of postcard fame in a cramped study, planted in front of a TV, somewhat infirm and attended to by two helpers.

I began the interview on eggshells when he excused himself to hit the john, another zillion slow, shuffling steps away. Then I heard a thud that suggested a deflated basketball bouncing in a gymnasium.  

“Help! Help!!!”

I ran over and there he sprawled, all 250-some pounds of him, spread out like postcard peanut butter on toast. There was no one nearby to pull him up. He reached out his hand. I tried and tried and tried … but my slender frame was better suited to hoist a Schlitz Dark at the Billy Goat. 

Then it hit me: If one of his staff found me with a prostrate Mr. Teich yelping, they’d probably think I’d assaulted him and restrain me. Call the cops. 

We shouted for what seemed like half an hour before a groundskeeper rushed in. Teich Jr. looked up at me without missing a beat:

“You know what they say about the golden years?”

“What?”

“It’s all a crock of shit.” 

For purposes of the interview, I left that off the record. 

-Lou Carlozo

❓If You Could Write About Anything, What Would It Be and Why? 

I’d write about how I can’t call myself a journalist anymore and how I find that condition joyously liberating and terribly melancholic. I’d probably interrupt myself and recall an anecdote about how, just today, I got comments from a video viewer who suggested I should’ve never called myself a journalist because I didn’t attend journalism school. 

At first, I’d question choosing to write about my personal experience out of concern it would be found self-serving or self-indulgent, both cardinal sins to a true journalist. But then I’d recall I’m not a journalist anymore (if I ever was one) and remember that the point was to share an experience in hopes that it might help others in a similar position.

I’d then briefly recount how I went to the school of hard knocks and taught myself to act like a journalist, think like a journalist and honor the tenets of journalism like a journalist. I’d tell journalist-y stories about how I once cursed my editors for imposing what seemed like arbitrary and draconian rules—like employing em dashes with no preceding or following spaces.

I’d chronicle the years I spent working a job as a journalist, being paid as a journalist and treated as though I were a journalist by numerous multi-national corporations. I’d speak with warm remembrance of how meaningful the work felt to me and how I believe it made a difference in this world, however small. 

Then, with tears in my eyes as I bid emotional adieu to the title I worked so hard to earn, I’d describe my view of today’s radically and rapidly changing media landscape and how much conviction I feel toward the importance of my new role in it as a hybrid creator/reporter/analyst who makes video content, shares investigative stories, and consults with the companies that make the products I cover to help make them better.

Finally, I’d encourage journalists facing uncertainty to be brave, take bold steps and prepare to invite jerks to take their bitter, ill-informed, unsolicited opinions elsewhere as they move to assume a role in forging the media’s new future. 

If I could. 

-Caleb Denison, not a journalist

Who's going where and why it matters. Not just job shifts - power dynamics, layoffs, and who's headed out. 

💔 Digiday to shut down WorkLife publication at the end of the year, ending its coverage of workplace trends and the future of work; Tony Case, senior editor, departing after five years of storytelling on workforce management and culture.

🧳 Former Puck staffers are launching a new food media startup, per industry scoop.

🧳 Renita Jablonski joined The Bulwark as head of audio, overseeing podcasts and audio expansion; previously head of audio at The Washington Post, and director of audio at Gimlet Media and Spotify.

🧳 Kamal Ahmed joined Fortune as executive editorial director for UK and Europe; previously editorial director at The Telegraph.

🧳 Ta-Nehisi Coates joined Vanity Fair as senior staff writer reporting across spheres of power; award-winning author of The Water Dancer and The Message, and Sterling Brown Endowed Chair at Howard University.

🧳 Adrienne Green joined Vanity Fair as executive editor, working with writers on features and special projects; previously deputy editor at The New York Times Magazine and senior editor at The Cut.

🧳 José Criales-Unzueta joined Vanity Fair as style correspondent; previously fashion news editor at Vogue Runway.

🧳 Marisa Meltzer joined Vanity Fair as senior staff writer contributing interviews and features; author of New York Times bestseller It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin, with bylines in The New York Times and The New Yorker.

🧳 Clara Molot joined Vanity Fair as staff writer reporting across topics; previously investigations editor at Air Mail.

🧳 Sarah Rieger joined BetaKit as managing editor to lead the newsroom and expand nationwide tech coverage; award-winning journalist formerly with CBC, HuffPost, and Maclean's.

🧳 Jamie Hall joined BBC Studios as scripted MD, overseeing labels like Lookout Point and Clerkenwell Films; previously president of Vice Studios UK and COO of scripted at Pulse Films, with credits including Medici: Masters of Florence.

🧳 Max Zeff joined WIRED as senior writer covering the business of AI, based in San Francisco; previously at TechCrunch breaking news on AI startups, and Gizmodo covering AI policy.

🧳 Alana Hope Levinson joined WIRED as features editor, based in Los Angeles; previously built editorial teams at Medium and MEL Magazine, with bylines in New York, GQ, and Vogue, and ran her own consultancy launching publications and podcasts.Feedback? Comments? Something else on your mind? Say hello. 

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