Published September 29, 2025
Somewhere along the way, someone in my line of work decided we can’t call it a press conference anymore because not all news organizations use a printing press. We’d have to call it a news conference.
And a bunch of people listened to that person, nodded, and repeated it until it spread like butter on toast. Many more people nodded. And never questioned it. And their brains melted, like butter on toast.
This is as good an example as any of how newsrooms love to make rules in search of a problem that doesn’t exist.
Merriam-Webster, the official dictionary of the AP Stylebook, and therefore, the go-to dictionary of most newsrooms, includes these definitions of “press” as a noun:
• newspapers, periodicals, and often radio and television news broadcasting;
• news reporters, publishers and broadcasters;
I looked up “press conference” in Merriam-Webster and found this:
• an interview or announcement given by a public figure to the press by appointment.
Then I looked up “news conference” and found this:
• press conference.
As editor friends have pointed out, not all press conferences have news.
Wasted energy
Press release. White House press corps. Meet the Press. Press agent (“an agent employed to establish and maintain good public relations through publicity”). Come on. People know what you mean when you say “press.”
We waste time and anergy with “rules” like this. And when I saw “we,” I mean the entire industry. The world is on fire, and we are hanging on by our fingernails, and pedantry like this isn’t going to save our jobs.
There’s not a way that you could word anything that I wouldn’t be able to pick apart if I wanted to. This kind of thing takes a profession and skill set that are important and takes a horribly wrong turn with them. A misguided turn.
If I told you I went to a press conference, would you ask, “So only people who have a printing press at work were there?” Of course not. You’d probably ask, “What was it about?”
“Press” has been an all-inclusive term for news media for a long time.
Let’s focus on things that matter. There’s so much out there more in need of our attention and expertise, I promise you.
Actual printing-press news
Speaking of Merriam Webster …
We have some words for you.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
The NEW Twelfth Edition.
Made of paper.
11.18.2025
www.merriam-webster.com/collegiate-d…
— Merriam-Webster (@merriam-webster.com) September 25, 2025 at 9:13 AM
My AP Stylebook subscription (which I have to pay for myself) includes the latest Merriam-Webster listings, but I might have to buy the new print edition. Because I’m old.
But not a dinosaur.
For grins and giggles
♥
Thank you
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Featured image of press pass by imdproduction via Shutterstock.