Press releases stopped working as a link tactic well over a decade ago. They still have uses, and knowing which ones prevents an argument with a PR team every quarter.
The link value is essentially zero
Syndicated release links are nofollowed or ignored, and the same text republished across hundreds of sites is precisely the pattern devaluation targets. Any proposal justifying a release on link acquisition is selling a 2010 tactic.
The genuine value is discovery, not links
A release puts a fact in front of journalists who may write their own coverage. That coverage earns real editorial links. The release is the input to the process, not the result, and measuring it as though it were the result makes it look like a failure.
Only genuine news qualifies
Funding, acquisitions, leadership changes, original research, genuine product launches. A rewritten blog post distributed as news gets no coverage and produces exactly the syndicated duplication that carries risk without benefit.
Measure it as PR, not as SEO
Track earned coverage and referring domains from journalists who wrote independently. Counting syndicated republications as results is how release budgets survive years past their usefulness — the number looks large and none of it means anything.