It’s easy to find opportunities for and easy to issue more news releases and opinions since the advent of online media, social media and email. But does that mean we should? When is too often for news releases?

In the many years when all media and communications were in print, by phone or face-to- face, the nature of the media imposed an unofficial natural control over the frequency because there was a limit to what they could or would publish.

So in markets where the main media outlets were monthly magazines, usually that meant that the editors were unlikely to publish more than one piece of news from a brand in each edition. Space was limited and only the strongest news was likely to make it on to the page. When there was more than one news item, PR teams had to be more selective about which they sold in or cleverly combine them where possible.

The same applied to internal and external communications before email when message were memos or letters typed, printed and posted. When it was so much more laborious, there wasn’t the time to send so many. Nobody had hundreds of printed messages every day to match the number of emails they receive now, none of this supposed pressure to read and reply while walking down the street, even down the stairs, or while eating.

Good news releases

While the speed and opportunity of both media and brands to get news out to audiences while it is still new is good news (it was often a month old before) the media don’t want to be inundated with news releases from a brand just because they have websites and more frequent e-newsletters.

In the weeks just before a major event, a weekly news release is fine, but otherwise, we’d recommend no more than two strong news releases per month. Quality is the most important factor.