Not pleased

 

 

Call me a COW, Cranky Old Woman.

 I was reading my Authors Guild magazine to see an article that started "We are pleased..."

As an ex-editor I would estimate if I received 100 press releases 98 started with that idiotic phrase,  "We are pleased..." It meant that if I wanted to use them they had to be rewritten so my readers wouldn't be bored with the same opening in several articles. 

I didn't give a damn that they were pleased. The story was what they were pleased about. Most press releases went directly in the waste paper basket.

I still find it hard to believe that communication and public relation professionals are so (pick one or more) lazy, stupid, unprofessional that they can't write a decent lead that might interest an editor to use their release.

One company I worked for didn't use that phrase but the first 17 words described the name of the company, the location, and other corporate BS before they got to the reason for the release. Little wonder not many press releases were used. 

Being retired, I don't have to deal with unprofessional, unimaginative PR people any more. This COW is a little less cranky.