[arrrg]

That would be a hilarious reversal of how PR is usually approached: the goal of everything you do is to make it easy for reporters to write about you, in the best case by giving them a text they can just copy, paste and publish with as few changes as possible.

To this end press releases are specifically written and structured like news articles. They are (supposed to be) published in a format that’s easy to copy.

It’s a favorite PR tactic because it works, even without any bribes or coercion. Newsrooms have been shrinking, money has been tight, reporters have less and less time, so if they get something they could as well publish it’s very easy to sway them, especially if it’s just boring news.

However, this is also a weird way to treat respectable journalists who would take the time to write about this. One common sense PR approach is to treat the press nicely, so annoying them by not allowing them to copy something (which might be perfectly legitimate, even when writing your own in-depth article about something) is just weird.

Also, look at this press release: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-ne...

All perfectly copyable. So I’m really not sure whether what you heard is actually true.