Frankie Flack: My releases are the new newswire

My name might say “flack,” but the reality is that I’m in the information-delivery game. Some might even say I’m in the news business. A bastardized, corporate version of the news business, but the news business nonetheless.

I wake up every morning interested in getting relevant news to people who need that information. Just like you.

This has been a great time to be in my branch of news (or “news,” if the ironic air quotes make you feel better). During the last year or so, my biggest competitors appear to be scaling back, limiting supply and thereby boosting demand for my news (“news”).

My buddies at the wire services tell me their bosses are less interested in breaking news nowadays. Beat reporters are being pushed to write thumb-suckers about Big Ideas, leaving the breaking news to the spot desks or headline services. And the folks manning those stations don’t have the chops to fill in for the beat reporters, so it’s hardly high-value content.

It’s not entirely clear why breaking news isn’t cool anymore. Maybe it’s tough to compete with Twitter. Maybe writers and editors don’t feel it adds enough value in today’s leaner newsrooms.

Regardless, it leaves a gap. So what fills that gap? My “news,” in the form of press releases. Wire services are now competing directly with corporate press releases. And this is a fantastic turn of events for me.

Let me explain: if an investor wants to know what my client did this morning and fires up his Bloomberg terminal, she’s going to see a couple of headlines, plus my release. No quotes from an academic or an analyst to give perspective. No illustrative history. Instead, my clients are supplying the context. We’re controlling the narrative.

And it’s not just those richy-rich guys with their Bloombergs who are losing out. Check the “news” box on Google Finance or Yahoo Finance, and you’ll see the same thing: fewer wire stories. More press releases.

It used to be damn hard to get my releases directly in front of customers or investors. I needed the wire services to re-write my press release copy, and I accepted the fact that there would be reporting that might water down (or, God forbid, contradict) the rosy narrative I was pushing.

Now, that’s often not the case. My release gets spammed across the web, with little or no independent analysis.

To be sure, big news still gets covered. The trades still sift through everything else. Stupid tech or political stuff gets an audience. But the gaps between what is happening in the world and what shows up in Bloomberg or Reuters or Dow Jones copy are growing.

Modest news — lawsuits, smaller M&A, modest product introductions — used to be the bread-and-butter of the wire services. Not so much anymore. There’s no coverage of record, leaving press releases as the exclusive information source.

Now, I don’t know if that serves the public’s needs. But it sure serves mine.