Ya know, every so often, a good crack up the back of the head is a blessing. I think it's human nature: You get into a groove and find comfort in doing things by rote. Regrettably, we tend to continue no matter how irrelevant or actually counterproductive the activity has gotten.

Well, here's a good smack! Today, we are thrilled to have David Henderson, the author of "Making News," an insider's look at media relations in a New Media world. Here the Emmy Award winning journalist and former CBS Network News correspondent addresses the #1 complaint about the Public Relations business.

Without further ado...SMACK!!

PR: The World's Most Prolific Spammer
By David Henderson

Ask journalists and PR people, alike, and many will tell you that press releases seldom result in making news. News releases simply are not the way news stories happen in today’s highly competitive world.

There are, of course, a few exceptions. Apple Computer and Nike are two companies that have mastered the technique of actually delivering legitimate news stories through their news releases, and they achieve outstanding results because of it. Apple and Nike know that reporters are paid to write stories so their news releases are actual stories. But they are the exception … the rare exception … rather than the rule.

The vast majority of news releases are little more than self-serving promotion and thinly disguised attempts at sales marketing. Don’t believe me? Well, then, explain that compulsive habit of adding an “About…” paragraph at the end of each news release?

It started during the tech boom of the 1990s when startups had CEOs and marketing people, not communicators, writing news releases, and they saw it was an opportunity to turn a news release into a sales brochure. In other words, “Since we don’t have any real news to announce, let’s issue a release to make up stuff and brag about how great we are!” When the attorneys got their hands on it, they recognized such bravado as “b-s” and insisted that releases contain safe harbor statements that essentially said that nothing in the release is true and the company has no memory of ever having claimed it and it’s not their fault.

Apple and Nike, by the way, don’t detract from the news they are announcing releases to bother with those insipid “About…” paragraphs because if you don’t know who they are and can’t easily find out on the Web, then you really don’t matter. Sorry.

Many PR agencies know that releases are largely a waste of time but crank them out nonetheless at the behest of clients.

By best estimates, public relations people in America flood the news media with upwards of 75-million news releases each year. The two largest news release distribution services – PR Newswire and BusinessWire – alone distribute approximately four million releases every month. Pile on the countless news releases that PR agencies, companies, governments and organizations email, fax and mail to the media, and the total amount is staggering. It is a myth that sending news releases to thousands of reporters will make a difference. Quite the contrary, you just might get tagged as an annoyance.

Here is the reality – most news releases are not read or are ignored. Unsolicited, irrelevant and meaningless news releases – the overwhelming bulk of releases emailed to newsrooms – are the #1 complaint of journalists about the PR business.

The problem has reach such proportions that most news organizations now actively work to block press releases in special spam filters to prevent the sheer volume of them from overwhelming the email inboxes of reporters and editors.

There is a rising tide of concern that the public relations industry could be labeled among the top spammers on the Internet. PR’s volume of blind and unsolicited pitches to the news media via email is already staggering, out of control and growing, fueled by a proliferation of online services that promise to deliver your press release to thousands of journalists by email, even though such an approach is rarely effective.

A PR person recently sent a single news release to about 1,300 people reporters and editors. I learned about it because an editor I know shared the email with me after counting the names in the “To” line. He stopped counting at 1,300 email addresses. The sender hadn’t bothered to hide the 1,300 in the “Bcc” line, but simply just mindlessly blasted out his news release with all the names revealed. The amount of space those 1,300 names consumed in an email was massive. Incidentally, he left the “Subject” line empty even though that’s an important place to try to get a journalist’s attention.

So, here’s the takeaway: First, blast and unsolicited emails rarely work to either get the attention of a journalist or to result in a story. What’s more, many PR people are actually teaching smart spam software to recognize more and more of the materials of public relations as spam. Hence, PR is becoming seen as online spam. Sorry but true.

Second, the news business has gotten so fiercely competitive that reporters are mandated to find exclusive and appealing stories that have not appeared elsewhere. News releases go to everyone so what reporter who wants to keep a job will bother to touch it? Today’s style of effective media relations is relationship-based. The most effective PR people smartly build trusted relationships with only the right reporters and share story ideas, one-on-one.

Here’s my advice – forget news releases. Get to know reporters who cover your business or organization. Chances are there is just a few. Establish yourself as a regular resource of tips and information which gives you an opportunity to stay in contact with the journalists. Then, when you have legitimate news, pick up the phone and talk with them. That’s how the best stories happen today.