Over 80 percent irrelevant PR? Why this nonsensical practice is still being followed

The economic logic of waste: Why companies continue to send out irrelevant PR

82 percent ends up in the trash: Why the PR industry wastes millions – and yet clings to it

Every day, countless press releases flood newsroom inboxes – and the vast majority of them end up straight in the digital trash. Industry studies paint a truly devastating picture: Over 80 percent of the PR information sent out is deemed irrelevant, inappropriate, or practically useless by media professionals. From a purely business perspective, this practice borders on a massive waste of resources. But anyone who believes that the classic press release has become obsolete as a communication tool is sorely mistaken. A fascinating paradox pervades the media world: Despite the enormous dissatisfaction with the quality of the content, press releases remain by far the most frequently used research source in journalism – and young editors, in particular, rely on them even more often than their older colleagues. How can this apparent contradiction be explained? Why do companies, agencies, and press offices stubbornly cling to a strategy in which four out of five messages fall flat? This article sheds light on the hidden economic logic behind the daily PR deluge, exposes fatal internal misincentives, and shows why social media often produces the greatest wastage, while traditional trade media unexpectedly emerge as the true efficiency miracles.

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When four out of five messages fall on deaf ears

Strictly speaking, there is no reliable overall statistic for irrelevant press releases, as relevance is defined completely differently depending on the target group, medium, and topic. However, a figure that has been cited in the industry for years serves as a useful benchmark from a journalistic perspective: around 80 percent. In the current "State of the Media Report," 82 percent of the media professionals surveyed stated that they consider the PR information they receive to be irrelevant or only marginally useful, with this assessment placed on a scale of zero to 25 percent relevance. This figure does not mean that exactly 82 percent of all press releases sent out are objectively worthless. Rather, it describes a deep-seated problem of alignment and relevance between what companies want to communicate and what newsrooms actually need.

Interestingly, despite this dissatisfaction, the use of press releases as a research source is by no means collapsing; in fact, several studies show it is increasing. According to the Media Trend Monitor 2025, 85 percent of journalists regularly use press releases for their research, ahead of personal interviews (84 percent) and search engines (80 percent). The promedia publishing house also confirms this with a nearly identical figure of 85 percent, stating that press releases remain the most frequently used research source, with 43 percent of respondents using them daily and another 27 percent several times a week. This apparent contradiction—that a tool is simultaneously perceived as largely irrelevant and yet used intensively—is the core of the economic puzzle this text aims to solve.

The figures in detail: What relevance ratings really measure

To put the oft-cited 80 percent mark into economic perspective, it's worth taking a closer look at the underlying data. The Cision State of the Media Report, from which the 82 percent figure is derived, doesn't measure the objective news value of a report, but rather the subjective assessment by journalists of the material they actually find in their inboxes. This distinction is crucial because it shows that the issue is less a quality problem with individual texts than a structural mismatch between the volume of content broadcast and actual demand.

A second, more relevant metric from an occupational psychology perspective provides additional context: 56 percent of journalists explicitly cite the flood of unimportant PR emails and story suggestions as a personal burden in their daily work. This figure points to an aspect that is usually overlooked in traditional measures of public relations success, namely the friction costs that poorly targeted communication generates on the recipient's end. Every newsroom that has to sort through dozens of irrelevant reports daily loses time that could be spent working on truly relevant topics.

A third perspective emerges from a study on wasted reach across communication channels. According to the study, 58 percent of corporate messages fail to reach their intended target audience on social media, compared to 32 percent for online media and only 23 percent for traditional channels like print, radio, and television. However, these figures measure the failure to reach the target audience and not directly the lack of news value. This means that, despite declining reach, traditional media still boast the most precise delivery rate overall. It is noteworthy that the very channel considered modern and efficient by many companies actually produces the highest wasted reach.

Key figure	Value	Source of the statement
PR information deemed irrelevant or of little relevance	82 percent	State of the Media Report
Journalists who perceive the PR deluge as a personal burden	56 percent	Industry survey
Dissipation in social media	58 percent	Scatter loss study
Wasteful distribution in online media	32 percent	Scatter loss study
Waste in print, radio, TV	23 percent	Scatter loss study
Journalists who regularly use press releases	85 percent	promedia Verlag, Trend Monitor 2025
Journalists who immediately reject pitches from outside their department	86 percent	Cision State of the Media Report 2025

A paradox with a system: Why use and rejection coexist

At first glance, it seems paradoxical that a communication tool is simultaneously considered largely irrelevant and yet used by the overwhelming majority of journalists. From an economic perspective, however, this paradox can be readily explained if one understands the press release not as a homogeneous commodity, but as a heterogeneous product bundle. Within the total mass of all distributed press releases, there exists a small but valuable subset that actually delivers new facts, reliable figures, or surprising insights. From the editorial perspective, this subset justifies the effort of continuing to review the entire channel, even if the vast majority of the rest ends up in the trash.

This pattern is comparable to how email spam filters work, where users don't shut down their inboxes despite a constant flood of irrelevant messages because an important email occasionally gets through. The economic logic behind this is called signal extraction under uncertainty: as long as the cost of sifting through the flood is lower than the expected benefit from the rare but valuable hits, the review process remains rational. This very calculation explains why 85 percent of journalists continue to consult press releases even though 82 percent of the material is considered irrelevant.

Furthermore, there is an age effect that is often overlooked. Younger journalists under 35 use press releases even more intensively than their older colleagues, with a rate of 92 percent compared to the average of 86 percent. This suggests that the press release as a format is by no means dying out, but rather that expectations regarding its quality have simply increased. Anyone who wants to attract attention in young newsrooms today must communicate more precisely, using multimedia, and in a more subject-specific manner than previous generations of PR professionals.

The economic logic of waste: Why broadcasting continues nonetheless

From a purely business perspective, the widely distributed, nonspecific press release is a textbook example of inefficient resource allocation. Producing a professional press release is by no means free, as conception, writing, internal approval processes, technical distribution, and follow-up tie up considerable personnel and budget resources. If the vast majority of this investment is wasted, as the 82 percent figure suggests, the resulting return on investment is sobering. And yet, countless companies, agencies, and communications departments cling to precisely this model. To understand why an apparently uneconomical practice has survived for decades, one must consider several overlapping incentive structures.

The first reason lies in the internal performance measurement of communications departments. Many companies evaluate the performance of their public relations work using quantitative metrics such as the number of press releases sent or the size of the press distribution list. Such metrics create the illusion of activity and productivity, but they don't measure the actual value in terms of media coverage, reputational gains, or business development. This perverse incentive system inevitably leads to an overproduction of mediocre press releases because press offices are under pressure to maintain constant visibility, even when there's no genuine news to report.

The second reason is psychological and organizational in nature. In many companies, sending out a press release is considered the safe, conventional way to document internal events such as product launches, personnel changes, or collaborations. Those who forgo this standard process risk being accused internally of missing an opportunity, even if the chances of success are objectively low. This form of organizational safeguard explains why even communications managers who are aware of the low success rate cling to the process: Omitting it would be harder to justify internally than continuing a familiar but inefficient routine.

The third reason concerns the structure of the PR industry itself. Agencies are often paid based on output, or at least evaluated based on the volume of activity, which creates a structural incentive to produce press releases at a high frequency instead of concentrating them on a few, but highly relevant, events. This compensation logic further exacerbates waste because it is economically rational for the agency, even if it remains suboptimal for the client.

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Scattering losses as a reflection of channel choice

Analyzing wastage by communication channel provides another important piece of the puzzle for understanding the logic of waste. The fact that social media exhibits the highest wastage at 58 percent, while traditional media are the most precise at 23 percent, contradicts the widespread assumption that digital channels are inherently more efficient than traditional public relations. In fact, the opposite is often true: While algorithmic distribution on social networks generates high reach figures, a significant portion of this reach consists of users who are simply irrelevant to the actual message.

This finding has direct consequences for budget allocation in companies. Those who measure communication success solely by impressions or reach will tend to invest in channels with high wastage because these deliver impressive absolute figures at first glance. A more nuanced analysis that considers the proportion of target groups actually reached would, however, often favor precisely targeted trade publications or targeted public relations. This relationship is particularly pronounced for B2B companies that rely on narrowly defined specialist target groups, as the number of relevant recipients is limited from the outset, and wastage becomes disproportionately expensive.

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Relevance as a crucial success factor for the future

Recent studies show a clear trend toward stricter selection among journalists. According to the Cision State of the Media Report 2025, 86 percent of journalists immediately reject pitches that don't fit their department or target audience. This figure even exceeds the 82 percent threshold for general irrelevance and indicates that newsrooms are increasingly filtering content while simultaneously experiencing a continuous rise in the volume of incoming communication. The consequence is an intensifying market consolidation, in which poorly targeted communication becomes increasingly irrelevant, while precisely targeted content gains disproportionate impact.

Interestingly, press releases enriched with multimedia content receive up to six times more attention than purely text-based releases. This suggests a shift in success factors: The mere existence of a press release is no longer the deciding factor in its impact, but rather the quality of its presentation, the inclusion of images, infographics, or video elements, and the demonstration of a concrete benefit for the readership. Companies that continue to rely on standard text-based releases without visuals are systematically missing out on potential reach, even if the core content of their release is highly relevant.

The importance of background information and fact sheets is also increasing. Three-quarters of the media professionals surveyed consider in-depth supplementary materials such as PDFs or further links to be particularly important for their journalistic work. This shows that journalists do not fundamentally want less information, but rather expect more targeted, directly usable information that facilitates their own research, instead of burdening them with standard advertising phrases.

Why traditional press work won't disappear despite everything

Despite its clear relevance issues, it would be premature to declare traditional public relations completely obsolete. Several structural reasons suggest that, despite its obvious weaknesses, this instrument continues to play an important role in the communications mix. First, traditional media still enjoy significantly higher public trust than content from social networks, giving companies covered by reputable media outlets a considerable credibility advantage. This trust bonus can hardly be replaced by purely self-promotional communication via company channels, as readers generally perceive editorial content as more objective than paid or self-produced advertising messages.

Furthermore, traditional press work remains a suitable format for complex topics requiring explanation, because the short attention span on social media platforms is often insufficient for conveying multifaceted issues. Particularly in the industrial or technical B2B environment, where complex innovations, regulatory frameworks, or multi-stage value creation processes need to be explained, the traditional press release still offers a structural advantage over short-format digital content.

Another aspect concerns the trade press. Particularly in specialized industry publications, traditional press relations remain highly important because editors often have limited time for their own research and rely on well-prepared information from the industry. If a press release actually provides new figures, verifiable progress, or concrete solutions for a specialist audience, its relevance rate increases significantly compared to the general average because it precisely fills the gap left by generic mass-market press releases.

The way out of the waste spiral

Understanding the economic logic behind the ongoing practice of irrelevant mass communication allows us to deduce how companies could make their public relations efforts more effective. The key lies in consistent selection: not every piece of internal news justifies a press release, but only those with genuine, verifiable news value, such as acquisitions, true product innovations, significant management personnel decisions, or key financial figures. However, this selective approach often clashes with the internal incentives of communications departments, which are measured by visibility and activity. Therefore, changing these internal performance indicators would be a necessary prerequisite for more efficient public relations.

In parallel, the targeted positioning of company representatives as recognized experts is gaining increasing importance as an alternative to traditional one-way communication via press releases. Unlike a one-off announcement that disappears into the general flood of information after its release, an established expert status builds a lasting, recurring relationship with journalists who actively consult the individual on future topics. While this form of relationship building requires a higher initial investment, it generates significantly more stable communication value in the long run than repeatedly sending out generic mass press releases.

Ultimately, the figure of 82 percent irrelevant PR information demonstrates less a failure of the press release instrument itself, but rather a systematic misuse of it. As long as companies continue to confuse quantity with effectiveness and base internal success measurements on broadcast volume rather than actual media response, the spiral of waste will continue. The real economic lesson, therefore, is not to abolish traditional press relations, but to finally manage them according to the same efficiency criteria that have long been standard practice in other business functions.

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