A group of publishers and communications professionals have created an interesting Web site decrying the ineffective and wasteful use of press releases by many PR companies. Their position is supported by a survey done in November and December.

The group claims that "PR Spam" is now at a level that is unacceptable and has asked that marketing professionals and PR firms take action to reduce irrelevant releases.

The group estimates that 1.7 billion irrelevant press release e-mails are received each year by journalists in the U.S. and the U.K. alone. Fifty-five percent of these recipients have taken action to block further news releases from sources that they believe are sending irrelevant news. The majority of press release recipients believe that approximately 80 percent of the releases they receive are irrelevant.

One factor cited by survey respondents as a way to make releases more relevant is to filter by type of release. In other words, plainly communicating the kind of story you are telling can help a journalist determine how relevant that story is to begin with.

The types of releases most frequently cited as irrelevant were office openings, appointments, financial results and "bragging rights" - awards and customer wins. While there are obviously journalists who would be interested in this news, marketers too frequently send these releases to the wrong people.

As our readers know, Trylon SMR has always been against blatant PR Spam. We target and work directly with the journalists and editors that would have a definite interest in the news and pitches that we send their way. We certainly agree that there is too much "spam" being distributed by some PR companies and applaud this effort to bring it to the industry's attention.