Getting the News Out

US-based French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur raised an interesting debating point last week, asking what are the best ways of releasing news if you’re a startup company in the tech industry:

[…] A classic in PR that has not changed with the Internet is “the exclusive”. It consists on giving the news you are about to release only to one media (or blog, which is the same…). When I started my first business in 1996 I remember that we were giving one exclusive to print, one to a radio and one to a TV station when the news was really important.

In his post Le Meur, CEO of video startup seesmic, itemized five different ways he sees of getting the news out:

1. Give an exclusive
2. Tell everybody at the same time
3. Blog it or tweet it only
4. Embargo the news (give it to selected sources hours before trusting they will not disclose it)
5. Make a press release using wires and have your pr agency contact journalists and bloggers to write about it

It’s an interesting debate especially as it’s part of a larger online discussion that’s been going on in recent weeks questioning the overall value of public relations (and a contribution to the debate is in the latest episode of the FIR podcast I co-present).

So what’s the answer to Loic’s question? What is the best way of getting the news out? While the question is geared to startups in particular, I think the answer has relevance to any organization, startup or otherwise.

Given the nature of Loic’s startup, naturally I offered some thoughts as a video comment:

What do you think? What is the best way. Is there a single answer?

You can respond in video, if you wish…