See my new blog, "Stop the PResses!"

Many dozens of press releases arrive in my email inbox every day. A small percentage of those are relevant, and spark a follow-up call by me or one of SD Times’ reporters.

Most of the remaining releases are deleted after a quick glance.

However, a few are funny. The release might be hilariously off-topic to what I write about. It might be incredibly badly written. It might be so jargon-laden that it’s incomprehensible. It might be all of the above at the same time.

What do reporters, editors and jouranlists do when we get funny press releases? We share them, of course! In my case, that means forwarding it to a few friends with the subject line, “Stop the Presses!” (If the release is exceptionally amusing, it merits the upgraded subject line, “Stop the Presses — cover story!”)

It occurred to me earlier this month, though, that it’s a shame not to share some of those award-winning press releases with a wider audience. And thus, I’ve launched the “Stop the PResses!” blog.

The press releases posted there are real and unedited. No names have been changed, no PR agencies have been disguised. They were received in my inbox: I didn’t pull them off the wire. The only change is that I’ve stripped out any rich HTML formatting and corrected line breaks. That’s it.

Note: I don’t mean any disrespect to those marketing and public-relations professionals who sent me those off-topic, badly written, jargon-laden and funny releases. I’m sure you meant well, and your release is important to you (and your clients). As the saying goes, “Good luck with that.”