Article: COMMENT: Thought Leader - Out with the old, in with the new: the press release gets a 21st century facelift.(Brief Article)

'I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs.' So wrote John Adams about Thomas Paine and his pamphlet Common Sense. With its incredible persuasiveness and clarity of style, Paine's pamphlet might well have been the first press release. Then again, Edward Bernays might well have issued the inaugural press release shortly after he opened the world's first PR firm in 1919.

Regardless of who issued the first one - Paine or Bernays - both releases had one thing in common: They were text-only documents. And text-only press releases remained the staple for virtually all of the 20th century.

But times they are ...

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