PR: More Than Just an Administrative Task

​As automated PR tools proliferate, there can be an inclination by businesses (particularly smaller startups and emerging companies) to assign PR to an administrative role.  After all, with tools that can automate media list development, distribute press releases and even create press releases for you, do you really need to spend the money on professional counsel?

The answer, of course, is yes you do.  Using the various automated PR tools on the market today without professional counsel, whether internal or external, is a bit like do-it-yourself legal contracts.  While they sometimes can work, do you really want to rely on that process to develop business contracts, protect your intellectual properties, file patents or trademarks without input from professional counsel?  The same is true with PR. 

Professional PR counsel can help guide you through the process of a product launch, staging an event, issuing a funding announcement, writing contributed articles and more.  For example, as we’ve mentioned in previous blogs, press releases and articles that are AI-generated; i.e., where the articles and press releases are generated by AI, are not copyrightable in the US, while those that are AI-assisted where AI provides research but the final articles and press release are written by a human are.  So if you use AI to write your press release or article (versus AI-assisted which allows for input from AI but where the actual writing is done by a human), your press release or article is not copyrightable in the US and anyone can copy it and use it for themselves.  And many media frown upon, if not reject AI-generated articles.

Automation including AI can bring many benefits to PR.  But don’t short-change yourself and your business by skipping professional PR counsel.