The press release was made for a media environment that doesn’t exist anymore. Reporters’ inboxes are flooded, voters ignore them, and the platforms penalize linking off your site. Even when a press release does get picked up, the coverage that follows is often a few quoted paragraphs buried on a section page nobody visits.

But announcements from your campaign are still relevant. Endorsements, hires, polling, policy rollouts, and events are the moments we build campaign narratives around. The format just needs a refresh. In fact, the exact same news works harder and goes further when it’s published natively where reporters, influencers, and voters already are.

Here are three formats that drive more attention from the same content.

Thread It On X

Political reporters and pundits live on X, along with engaged voters and donors. A well-structured thread lands in front of this audience directly without an intermediary deciding whether the press release is worth sharing.

Take the exact same content you would include in a press release and repurpose it as a thread. Your lead post is the news itself, like the headline, the endorsement name, the fundraising number, whatever the story is. The posts that follow lay out the details a reporter would need. Close with a link to the receipt, whether that’s a poll, a policy paper, or an endorsement email.

Don’t forget to amplify it with your war room account.

Record A Video

Direct to camera vertical videos of two minutes or less without a teleprompter or any b-roll (sometimes called “yaps”) are the most effective social content right now. The lower production value is part of the appeal because it comes across as direct and unscripted – the exact opposite of a press release.

Yapping works especially well for announcements that benefit from emotion or context. A launch, a response to an attack, or the personal “why” behind a policy rollout all land better when voters can see and hear the candidate rather than reading about it in third person. These videos works across numerous platforms giving you more content.

Platform Native Notes

Substack, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook all support long-form notes natively. Rather than linking out to the press release, you’ll rewrite your announcement and publish it inside the platform the reader already is. This gives you more reach at a time when social platforms are penalizing posts with outbound links.

Some light editing of the announcement to make it work best for each platform ensures the message meets the medium.

Conclusion

Press releases linger from an era when you relied on gatekeepers to carry your message to voters. Having a new media mindset means your campaign is carrying the message directly to voters.

Next time you’re tempted to write a press release, try one of these alternatives first. You’ll reach more of your audience working with the distribution algorithms than against them.