Let Bylines Be Bygones

We’ve seen bylines on printed articles for all of our lives. They are popular with journalists because they get credit for writing the news story in front of you. And let’s face it... we all love seeing our names in print.

Whereas newspaper and online articles are generally attributed to one writer, press releases are not. They are nameless and faceless articles about the developments at various organizations. Ideally they could have come from anyone.

News articles are meant to be unbiased looks at a topic. The journalists who write them want to establish themselves as experts, and bylines help build their credibility. However, bylines actually hurt the credibility of press releases.

There are a few reasons why press releases should remain anonymous:

First, press releases writers should generally distance themselves from their content. Writers who are close to their subject matter are often not taken seriously. Readers will trust an apparent outsider more than a biased insider at an organization. A byline will draw attention to the fact that the writer is an insider.

As we mentioned in this post, you shouldn’t write press releases from a first person perspective. A byline on a news release will automatically tie the author and organization together. When a press release doesn’t have a byline, the reader puts more distance between the material and the organization.

Second, because the reader doesn’t know who the author of the release is, the writer has more freedom than other writers. For example, press release writers can do something that most writers cannot... they can quote themselves.

This effectively allows the author to incorporate their personal feelings into a news story. Press releases should sound neutral, and the quotes in them should inject feeling. Feel free to insert your own opinions in quotes if necessary.

Third, most public relations offices love fielding phone calls about press releases from the media. Why? Because these calls mean the publication liked the press release they saw and will likely write a news story about it.

Often when a byline appears in a press release, the person who wrote it doesn’t work in the public relations office. In these cases, the author is not the regular media contact listed on the release. When this happens, the recipients often don’t know who to contact at the organization. Eliminate this confusion by eliminating bylines.

Lastly, many journalists rewrite press releases into news stories for publication. Newsroom staffs in today’s economy are smaller and busier than ever. Bylined press releases are generally more difficult than traditional press releases to rewrite. Journalists tend to shy away from rewriting material that came from a named source. In other words, more of your original text will get lost in translation.

Nowadays, press releases are picked up (and sometimes published verbatim) as news. This trend will continue as more and more media outlets begin syndicating news from RSS feeds, widgets and social media platforms. While one may think this trend of news syndication would benefit from personalized news bylines, this just isn’t the case. Now, more than ever, press releases should be “print-ready” and unbiased news.