Press Releases vs. Editorial Coverage: How I Talk About My Own Press

Every founder eventually faces the same temptation. You get your name on a big platform, and you want to describe it in the most impressive way possible. “As seen on.” “Featured by.” The words are technically defensible and slightly misleading at the same time.

I've decided to do it differently. When I talk about my press, I label it exactly for what it is. Here's how I think about it, and why I believe that clarity is worth more than the extra shine.

Two very different things

Editorial coverage is when a publication decides on its own to write about you. A writer or editor chooses the story, asks the questions and publishes under their outlet's standards. My interview with VoyagePhoenix, “Hidden Gems: Meet Zay Hampton of Royal Rentals,” is a conversation about my story in their interview series.

A press release is an announcement written by or for the company and distributed through a newswire service. Newswires syndicate releases to many platforms, including major financial sites. That's how a company announcement can appear on Yahoo Finance or in Bloomberg's press release section.

What my Yahoo Finance and Bloomberg items actually are

In 2022, the Royal Rentals announcement “Royal Rentals is Providing its Customers the Opportunity to Taste the Experience of Driving Luxury Cars” was distributed by Newsfile and published on Yahoo Finance, and the same announcement appears in Bloomberg's press release section. Earlier that year, a GlobeNewswire release about Royal Riches, my 2022 luxury-lifestyle initiative, was published on Yahoo Finance. Royal Riches is historical coverage only and is not an offer of any token, security or investment.

Those are press releases. They're real, they're public and they mark real moments in my journey. They are not editorial features written by those newsrooms, and I won't describe them that way.

Why the label matters

The people I work with are sophisticated. Investors, lifestyle management firms, exotic car owners and high-net-worth clients have seen every version of founder marketing. If they discover that a “feature” was a release, the question they ask next isn't about the release. It's about what else was overstated.

I'd rather be the person whose claims hold up when someone checks. In a business built on trust, like luxury hospitality, credit and partnerships, that matters more than any logo.

How press releases are still useful

None of this means press releases are worthless. They create a public, dated record of what a company announced and when. They help people find you. They give partners a reference point. Used honestly, they're a perfectly good tool.

The problem is only ever the framing. A release is a company telling its own story. Say so, and it does its job without creating a credibility debt.

What I tell other founders

When founders in my mentorship circles ask whether they should put out a release, my answer is yes, if they have something real to announce and they describe it honestly afterward. Put the release on your site with its distributor named. Don't crop the newswire credit out of a screenshot. Don't turn “distributed on” into “featured in.” The small amount of extra shine isn't worth the question it creates later.

My rules for talking about press

• Link to the real source. Every item I mention points to the actual published page.
• Name the type. Interview, editorial or press release, stated plainly.
• Name the distributor. If a newswire carried it, I say which one.
• Never imply what hasn't happened. I don't claim placements, awards or features I haven't earned.
• Let the work speak loudest. Clients care more about the car arriving on time than about where a headline ran.

Credibility is a long game

The full list of my coverage lives on the press trail, labeled the same way. My hope is that anyone who reads it walks away trusting the rest of what I say a little more. That's the only kind of press that compounds.