Debunking 5 Myths with the State of the Press Release report.

Every few years, someone declares the press release dead. The evidence says otherwise.

Medianet's new State of the Press Release report looked at 7,850 press releases sent by 553 organisations between January and August 2026. Two in three (65.9%) were picked up by the media, meaning a news outlet published the release. Along the way, the data put some of PR's most familiar rules of thumb to the test. A few held up. Several didn't.

Here are five myths the data busted, and the one thing it confirmed above everything else.

Myth 1: “The press release is dead”

It's one of the oldest claims in PR, and the data doesn't back it up anymore. Two in three releases sent through Medianet between January and August 2026 were picked up.

Journalists are leaning on releases more, not less. In Medianet's 2026 Australian Media Landscape Report, 86% of the 803 journalists surveyed said they use press releases as a story source. For the first time, releases overtook industry and professional contacts as the source they rely on most.

One journalist in that survey explained why: “Media is now dependent on press releases as there is not enough time or resources to hunt independently for stories.”

Releases also have a second life on Large Language Models (LLMs). Medianet's Opening the Black Box research found that 67% of AI citations came from content that organisations publish themselves, so a well-written release now reaches AI answers as well as newsrooms.

Myth 2: “Don't send on a Friday”

Many PR teams avoid Fridays, assuming newsrooms are winding down for the weekend. In fact, Friday releases had the highest pickup rate of any weekday, at 69%. Monday was the weakest, at 61.8%.

Time of day mattered even more. More than a third of releases (35.8%) went out between 9am and noon, and that busy window had a below-average pickup rate of 63.3%. Releases sent before 6am or after 6pm were picked up 76.5% of the time, yet only 6.9% of releases went out in those hours. With less competition in the inbox, each release gets more attention.

Embargoes are worth a second look too. Only 3.3% of releases used one, but those that gave journalists one to two days' notice were picked up 86.1% of the time. That's a small group of 36 releases, so treat it as a signal rather than a rule. Same-day embargoes made no difference.

Myth 3: “More quotes mean more coverage”

It's tempting to include a quote from every stakeholder involved. The data suggests there's no reward for it. Releases with no quotes were picked up about as often as those with three or more.

What mattered was where the first quote sat. Releases with a quote in the first 75 words were picked up 72.4% of the time, against 64.2% when the first quote came later. Only 16% of releases with quotes put one that early, which makes this one of the simplest changes you can make.

What the quote says counts too. When the first quote flagged a concern or risk, releases were picked up 77.8% of the time. When the quote contained words as s “delighted”, “proud” or “thrilled”, that fell to 55.5%.

Myth 4: “Lead with the announcement”

Launches, new products and new reports are often the reason a release gets written, so it's natural to put them in the headline. But headlines that announced, launched or unveiled something were picked up just 50.2% of the time, the lowest of any headline type tested.

Headlines that warned, urged or flagged a risk reached 77.4%. Starting with your organisation's name (59.5%) or the word “New” (59.4%) also pulled results down, while adding a dollar figure lifted pickup to 73.4%. This naturally changes depending on the story.

Releases with a genuine news angle were picked up 72.5% of the time, compared with 50.6% for those written mainly to promote a product or company. Pairing a story's impact with conflict, risk, or a well-known name lifted pickup to 75.6%. So if your headline starts with a prominent name, and that name is part of your story, it will have a positive impact on your potential pickup.

Myth 5: “A bigger list is always better”

This one is half true. Releases sent to 1,500 or more recipients were picked up more often, at 73.7% against 58.4% for lists under 200.

But smaller lists worked harder for their size. Releases sent to fewer than 200 people earned 17 pickups for every 100 recipients, while the biggest lists earned fewer than one. Small lists were also opened more, with a median open rate of 37.5% against 31.3%.

The right list depends on the goal. Go broad when you want a story republished widely, and go small when the story is niche and relevance matters more than volume.

And finally

One piece of long-standing advice held up better than anything else. Releases that offered commentary on a news moment were picked up 88.5% of the time.

It worked for planned and unplanned news alike. Reactions to scheduled events, like the federal budget or NAPLAN results, were picked up 92% of the time, and reactions to breaking news reached 86.7%. Of the organisations that sent news reactions, 75% got more pickup from them than from their other release

The full report covers pickup by news value and embargo, and finishes with a one-page checklist to run through before you hit send.

Download the State of the Press Release 2026 report