Press releases are an enormous hoax. They're written by people who pretend to be excited and received by people who pretend to be interested. It's time for a change.

In the bizarre love triangle between companies, PR firms and the media, nobody wins except the PR firms who get paid whether the press releases are read or not.

In my former life as full-time journalist I received (and ignored) thousands. I've seen editors scan through a hundred email press releases in five minutes and delete the lot. Before that, as a CEO, I paid tens of thousands of pounds for shiny press releases that got us no coverage whatsoever.

Expectations are low and cynicism is high. I think it's time to re-evaluate the whole concept and go back to basics.

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Columnist Matthew Stibbe is Writer-in-chief for Articulate Marketing, a specialist copywriting agency. His clients include Microsoft, the British Government and leading magazines like Wired and Popular Science. Matthew also writes a blog called Bad Language. Click here to read more articles by Matthew Stibbe.