Realwire’s CEO Adam Parker and supporters have today launched an industry-wide initiative to cut down on the 1.7 billion irrelevant press release emails estimated to be received in total each year by UK and US Journalists alone.

The bane of many a journalist’s daily life is the irrelevant press release. It’s an issue that’s been doing the rounds for years, surfacing every so often because of a public outing of those in the wrong. Freelancer Kevin Braddock is the most recent example, though he swiftly removed his list due to an overwhelming response from those named – citing that he wasn’t in a position to act as mediator. Charles Arthur is well known to rant about the rise of “badly targeted, trivial and stupid” emails in his inbox. PR people everywhere are all too aware of the issue.

Though there are always going to be some that spoil it for everyone, Parker has decided to take a stand and do something about it. Following research throughout November and December 2009, it was discovered that 78% of press release emails are received by recipients to whom they are irrelevant, and 55% of this group have taken action to block a sender of news.

Journalists from Pocket-lint, Trusted Reviews and Electric Pig, and agency heads from Speed Communications, Borkowski and 3WPR have all advised on a bill of rights that the initiative hopes to roll out across the media landscape. The group’s website details a set of guidelines that have been ‘demanded’ by journalists and bloggers (backed up by an extensive list of articles to prove the point), including only sending releases to contacts that have given permission, not relying on media lists exclusively and reading the publication first.

This is a fantastic PR stunt in itself for Realwire, and to many, the advice might seem like common sense. But unfortunately, there are still many that let the side down. It might not always be consciously, so putting things in black and white gives communicators something to point to throughout the education stage. Guidelines exist elsewhere already, so who knows if this will actually make a difference – but its heart is certainly in the right place.