Next time, use Google or the forum search before opening a new thread http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+press+release%3F Code (markup): Bonus: How to use a search engine http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1900-search-engine-tutorial Code (markup):
A press release is an announcement of sorts that gives the requisite information about a newsworthy event. They are distributed to various media outlets as well as online PR submission services that circulate them. The goal of a press release is to answer the five Ws: Who? What? When? Where? Why? This is an example of how they are formatted and presented. You can search further on your own for tutorials on writing them. There are hundreds of them out there.
Press releases should be reserved for 'newsworthy' events. If you, your company or your brand are doing something that you think the public would be interested in or that could some how benefit them, let them know via a press release. Press releases are not blog posts or generic articles and should never be used as such. If you do intend to write a press release and distribute it via one of the online services, wait until you've done that to post it on your website. Better yet, just link to the PR itself, once it's online via the services.
I hear a rumor that press releases are slowly dying, can anyone confirm or deny this? I've never done one myself but I can't see why they would die, as long as the content is newsworthy like Senobia said.
Well, some people have come to this conclusion because of social media. You can spread the word about events exponentially faster via Twitter and the likes than you can by submitting press releases to directories and waiting for them to get 'picked up'. Plus, press releases have the 'it's gotta be newsworthy' restriction on them whereas announcements via social media do not. So maybe as a marketing tool (a purpose for which they were never meant for), yes - press releases are dying. But in terms of being a component of the media and major news industries as a whole, no - they aren't going anywhere any time soon.
I have used Press Releases myself to promote many websites. But that was sometime ago - like in 2008. I don't PR is useless. In fact if you would do a Google and find niche PR websites to post your article, its really worthwhile doing that as it comes up on the SERP pretty fast. Senobia has a classic example of the PR template. Good one.