Daniel Burstein, Associate Director of Editorial Content at MarketingSherpa pitched an extreme idea in his blog late last year: "Public Relations: The best press release is no press release."
Catchy title, but misdirected, because his arguments agaist the press release have nothing to do with the press release itself. His beef is with the content inside.
It doesn't matter what you call it. Letters, press releases, queries, and so on will get tossed in the trash if you don't write to your audience! Burstein's advice is no different than what media folks have been saying for years: Find the news value and explain it in simple language that your mother would understand.
Do that, and you'll have great content for a query letter to Burstein and a press release.
