Why do I feel like someone’s trying to put me on the street?

Now, anyone can cut and paste their press release into the press release grader and get an instantaneous report on its quality and effectiveness.

Frankly, I’m not overly worried (yet) and I think it’s a bit of fun for PR practitioners to play with. I also think that Robin Wilson is a terribly polite  about it on his blog.

While I don’t agree the press release is dead (not many national journalists will say “press release? Nah? Let’s talk about it over coffee”) the press release grader doesn’t help those getting a bad score to really understand how they need to put it right. Done well - usually by professionals - the press release can be a powerful tool to spread a (operative word) good story far and wide. In fact, magazine staffs are so pressurised that a well-written release can sometimes be cut and pasted wholesale, particularly online.

Nice toy, but no substitute for real experience and good old-fashioned news sense.