Item type for press releases

What's the best item type to use for press releases? The closest I can find are website, newspaper article or magazine article, but a press release is really neither...
  • personally I use webpage (if it's published online, obviously). You can specify "Press Release" under webpage type, some styles pick that up.

    Another option, if you want to include more info, would be report, which I always think of as grey publication, usually by an institution, i.e. something that fits pretty well for press releases.
  • Thanks. I use mostly "website" at the moment, but it's not ideal as I get some press releases not via the original site but via news services.

    I hadn't thought of "report" and I can see your reasoning, but to be honest I always think of a report as something much more substantial, like an article or book, just not published.

    I guess my problem is perhaps that a press release is something conceptually different, and although there are other types that can take all the necessary information, it always feels a bit artificial.
  • For APA style, the web page Item type and adding "Press release" in Website Type works great including providing the complete date--not just year--except for one thing... APA requires the title be in italics. APA no longer italicizes web page titles.

    We cannot use other Item types such as Magazine article because of the italics rule.
    Is there some setting we could put in Extra to capture the [Press release] and then use the some other Item Type which italicizes the title?
  • I use "Letter" with Type "Press release".
    Title is in italics and date is complete.
  • This is one of APA's rather inane contradictory rules. Personally, I would suggest to just cite as a Website, ignoring the stated need for italics title. I hope that in the forthcoming APA 7th edition, this is one the things that receives the promised "simplifying and standardizing" treatment.

    Otherwise, I would use Document over Letter and add "Medium: Press release" to Extra. That will get the format you want.
  • What do you put in the "Author" field for press releases? Some options that occur to me at the moment.
    1. The Institution. (Objection: That would be in "Website Title" instead.)
    2. The people who wrote the press release. (Objection: that is often undisclosed.)
    3. The name of the press department? Example: "Office of Public and Media Relations")

    Habits, opinions, objections, etc. are welcome!
Sign In or Register to comment.