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Ask HN: Recommendations for issuing a press release?

1 points by JeffL ↗ HN
Anybody here issued a press release before? I understand you have to issue it through a company that will distribute it to the press. Does anyone have a recommendation on a good company to use?

(The press release I want to issue is to announce the date of when the new MMO I've been working on for the last 4 years is going to start.)

5 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 23.9 ms ] thread
glimcat
It's much the same as writing anything, really. Figure out your core message. List supporting points that you want to make. Draft and revise.

Options at that point include "post it" and "hire a professional copyeditor to take over from your notes."

JeffL
But you have to pay a company to "post it", don't you?
glimcat
Ah - you're interested in releasing press releases, not generating them.

I would start contacting relevant blogs / bloggers directly. If you can get it picked up in a few major channels, it will echo. Posting to HN can also be a good method. In either case, it helps to have a good presentation with some appropriate media content so that it's easy to prepare a compelling article about it.

freejack
Don't bother with a press release. Better to just use social channels and the web to do your own PR.
JeffL
It's not an either/or kind of thing, though. Isn't it worth paying for the press release just to hope to get the story picked up various places? Aren't there lots of web sites that will basically just reprint press releases as their sources of content?

Of course I will use social channels and the web as well, but there's only so much I can do.