Number of press releases issued

Additions, clarifications, extended definition

This metric reflects the intensity of communication activity towards the media, but by itself says nothing about the actual reach or impact of the releases. It is a record of the team's input effort, not a measurement of results. It is typically used as an internal activity indicator that can help compare planned versus actually delivered outputs.

Interpretation

A higher number of press releases may signal that the organisation is actively communicating with the media. However, more press releases do not automatically mean better results – what matters more is their quality, relevance, and whether they were picked up by the media.

Watch out: limits and risks of distortion

• It says nothing about impact: the number of releases does not reflect whether they were published or what response they generated.
• It can lead to a false assessment of performance: a high number of releases may be perceived positively even if it generated no media coverage.
• Comparability: organisations have different standards (some issue a single comprehensive release, others several short ones).

Where and how to measure

• The PR team's internal records (press list, media calendar, project tracker).
• An archive of sent press releases / comments.
• A PR distribution tool (Prowly, Mediaboard).

Context

This metric belongs to the process (activity) indicators. It is useful for internal tracking of workload and of the organisation's communication activity, but for campaign evaluation it must be complemented with metrics from the Outputs and communication effect phases, which track actual influence in the media and among audiences. In addition to this activity metric, we also recommend tracking the yield of individual press releases and comments (how widely a release was picked up, by which media, etc.).