The Palestinian clan or tribal system

The press statement is essentially the original message which is delivered by a company or its representative PR agency to media for publishing as editorial. In other words, the press statement is formulated strategically by the PR representative to communicate a

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particular message to the public. Press statements are issued by companies, PR firms or individuals to media representatives (including newspapers and magazine journalists or editors, television and radio producers and online writers such as bloggers or prominent social media personalities). Press statements are used by media representatives to generate news or editorial stories or to gather further information on a particular topic or news event.

While journalists are the primary recipients of press statements, the intended purpose of the press statement is to have that particular information – either portions of the press statement, such as direct quotes, or the entire press statement – published by journalists in specific publications as editorial content – this is then read by a wider audience. The press statement is considered a form of “mediated discourse” (Jacobs in Catenaccio 2008: 155) as they form a ‘bridge’ between the company and the public via media.

Press statements are normally written by a dedicated company employee or by a PR agency that represents that company. In either situation, the writer acts on behalf of the company issuing the press statement and therefore, for the purpose of this study, it is irrelevant whether the writer is employed directly by the company or contracted as a third party. Often, the first draft of the press statement, including pseudo quotes, is written by one employee and edited by a senior employee within the PR or marketing department.

This edited draft is then presented to a senior company representative for further editing or approval. Once the press statement has been signed off, it is ‘pitched’³ to media

3 ‘Pitching’ is the term used to describe the process of liaising with media representatives to stimulate their interest in publishing a press statement. This is done by sharing highlights of the press statement via telephone or email.

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representatives at strategically selected publications. In other words, the press statement is presented to media representatives for their consideration to publish or broadcast the contents of the press statement in media via platforms such as newspapers, magazines, online publications, television or radio. For a company to reach a target audience via such media platforms, it is dependent on media representatives’ decision to make use of the information contained in the press statement. Because a company is not able to directly control whether media representatives will in fact decide to publish a given press statement, it is common practice to write press statements strategically to improve the chances that the press statement will be published. A news ‘hook’ or story ‘angle’ needs to be strong enough to encourage the decision by the journalist to publish the content or to incorporate information from the press statement within the editorial content. It is normally necessary that press statements do not include overt promotional content for it to be published as editorial. The news ‘hook’ or story ‘angle’ therefore needs to be more dominant than the incorporation of the company’s brand messaging. Note, however, that if the company is an advertiser with a given publication, this usually enhances the odds that the company’s press statements will be published as editorial. Editorial content is generally produced by journalists and is not paid for or sponsored by a company that is mentioned in the content, as the case would be with advertorial content. Editorial content is therefore mostly regarded as newsworthy or unbiased information. Advertorial content, on the other hand, is overtly biased in that a particular company conveys an explicit message about its brand or services in its own ‘voice’. In other words, the content does not necessarily align with the publication’s own ‘voice’. Advertorial content is therefore

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normally labelled as such in the publication. This is paid-for space which therefore allows the company who has bought the space to convey its brand message overtly.

Press statements additionally need to fit in with publications’ ‘template’. In other words, the topic of the press statement would need to fit in with those typically featured by a given publication. Further, because an element of competition exists between certain publications – as in any business context – media representatives may favour unique content or being offered the opportunity to publish a press statement before any other publication, known as receiving ‘the scoop’. Catenaccio et al. (2010: 3) explain that the notion of the ‘scoop’ is integral press statements as journalists avoid covering a story that has already been published by other publications so as to keep their information unique.

In this way, the media often attempt to publish a story first – get a ‘scoop’ – in order to gain a competitive advantage over other publications. The end result of having a press statement published therefore stems from a complex and strategic process. As such, it is clear that not only does the press statement’s function involve persuading the public or the company’s target readership, but also media representatives. The reasons for the production and hopeful consumption of press statements include gaining third party endorsement (Catenaccio 2010: 159), enhancing the company’s image, piquing the interest of consumers and, thus, improving profitability.