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PPN World

Research Center

Original research on the press release — how it is published and who can read it — measured on PPN World's live archive of the world's releases. Every study publishes its method, its uncertainty and its data, free to reuse with a credit.

The papers draw on PPN World's archive, which collects press releases from 1,400+ publisher feeds as they are published.

Research papers

Paper No. 2 · October 15, 2026

The Anatomy of a Press Release

What 176,492 press releases on 877 websites are made of — length, dateline, quotations, About section, media contact and the marks of the fax era — and who still writes them the old way.

By Émile Bolduc
words in the typical press release (median)
588
words in the typical press release (median)
words: a company's release, a national government's
718 / 401
words: a company's release, a national government's
words longer on distributors, most of them outside the story
+155
words longer on distributors, most of them outside the story

There are two press releases now. The copy on a distributor's website still has the newswire's parts: a dateline, an About section, a contact to call. The copy on an organization's own website mostly does not. The difference in length is mostly that apparatus, not the story.

Read the paper↓ PDF↓ Data (CSV)❝ Cite
Paper No. 1 · October 8, 2026

94% of Press Releases Are Open to AI Crawlers

A pre-registered census of the robots.txt files behind 500,129 press releases: what 1,503 websites tell 13 AI crawlers, and Google.

By Émile Bolduc
of press releases open to every AI crawler
94.0%
of press releases open to every AI crawler
open to the crawlers behind AI search
99.0%
open to the crawlers behind AI search
of the five largest websites refuse an AI crawler
0/5
of the five largest websites refuse an AI crawler

We read the robots.txt file behind every one of 500,129 press releases. 94.0% of them are open to every AI crawler we tested. Where a publisher does refuse, it refuses to train AI — not to be quoted by it.

Read the paper↓ PDF↓ Data (CSV)❝ Cite

Data reports

Shorter, recurring measurements of the wire's own behaviour.

Émile Bolduc

About the Research Center

The Research Center publishes original, pre-registered studies of the press release, measured on PPN World's archive, with every method, dataset and correction in the open. Its papers are written by Émile Bolduc.

Émile Bolduc · LinkedInORCIDContact the Research Center

How we work

  • Frozen data

    Every figure is computed from a dated, committed snapshot, so a number you cite is still true tomorrow. A new edition is a new snapshot, announced as such.

  • Uncertainty is shown

    Rates carry 95% intervals; cases we could not determine are counted and reported, never quietly dropped or quietly counted.

  • Robustness before headlines

    A finding is tested against the obvious objection — a different mix of publishers, one dominant source, how it is averaged — before it is written down.

  • No gate

    No email, no sign-up, no sales call between you and the numbers.

  • CC BY 4.0

    Republish, redraw and remix, commercially or not — credit PPN World and link to the study.

  • Corrections are published with their date

    We do not silently edit a page someone has cited.

For journalists and researchers

Quote any figure with a link to its study; each paper carries ready-made APA, MLA, Chicago and BibTeX references, a PDF and its dataset as a CSV. For a cut of the data we have not published, a question about method, or an interview, write to us.

Contact the Research Center