What is a Press Release?
A press release, also called a media or news release or a wire feed, is a short piece of writing that was sent to, or intended for, journalists or the news media. The purpose of a press release is to inform journalists of something that is potentially newsworthy and give them enough information to report on it more easily. Companies generally write these in order to promote new products or services, new CSR initiatives, and other changes that may garner popular support, such as raising their minimum wage.
Press or Media Pages on Company Websites:
Most companies and brands, even smaller, private companies, have press pages. These can be easily found by typing the name of the company into Google with "press" or "media" and "page" or "center."
Example Pages:
Use the Business Article Databases:
The Business Article Databases allow you to narrow the articles by publication and source type. Most of these have a category for "press releases" or "wire feeds," and these come from the main Press Release aggregators used by people who work in journalism, like PR Newswire.
Example:
Investor Relations Pages
According to Investopedia, "The investor relations (IR) department is a division of a business, usually a public company, whose job it is to provide investors with an accurate account of company affairs. This helps private and institutional investors make informed decisions on whether to invest in the company (E. Tarver, 2021)." Most public companies investor relations pages can simply be found by googling the name of the company and the terms investor relations.
Example Google Search: Qualcomm investor relations
These pages typically contain the most recent filings, public disclosures, earnings call transcripts, and presentations.
Earnings Calls
According to Investopedia, "An earnings call is a conference call between the management of a public company, analysts, investors, and the media to discuss the company’s financial results during a given reporting period, such as a quarter or a fiscal year. An earnings call is usually preceded by an earnings report, which contains summary information on financial performance for the period (J. Chen, 2021)." These are valuable sources of contextual information about the performance of a public company and management's perspectives. Investor relations pages usually have the most current, but you can find additional/older earning calls using the links below.
