Right, I'm aware of how Press Releases work. I've written quite a few myself. I also agree that it seems odd to change the contact on an old release when it might not even apply any longer. However, I do know that some are still applicable months and years later, so it would make sense to update contact information in those cases.
A press release isn't suppose to have an "author" per se. It's announcement from the entity as a whole, not any particular person, as a general rule ... although it is a fairly biased announcement since the whole point is to get media attention. If someone told me they wrote a
PR, I would not necessarily expect their name to be on the document. I've written plenty of them where the contact person was somebody else.
I do see why you'd be upset...given that an outdated release doesn't really matter. But, I do think it's their prerogative to change the contact if you're no longer working with them. I mean, that's just common sense to me.
I'm wondering why you don't have a single portfolio with the original release in it for people to view. That's what I do. The Internet changes constantly, so I have one link I give to people with samples of my work as they were when I completed them. On each sample, there are current notes about that sample. So in this case, I'd likely have a PDF copy of the original release (or screen shot of it on the client's site), and in my notes give the link where it is located with a small note that says, "Contact has since changed." I would likely also supply some of those alternate links where the release has not been changed for comparison.
But I tell you, I would never, ever rely on anyone's link for my portfolio. My portfolio remains in my control so there are no surprises.
Maybe I'm just numb to the idea that after work leaves my hands, its out of my control. If I'm paid to do something, I'm not going be all that anal retentive about them making changes down the road, especially if we have a work for hire agreement. They have the right to change what they want, and that's pretty much a given. It seems a tad bit uppity to insist that you be told when they make minor changes to material they own.
I've been a technical writer for years and my material gets cut up and updated all the time. If I insisted they call me everytime that happens, I'd just be annoyed. All I care about it the quality of the work at the time I completed it and what I was paid to do... not the current status.
Now, if it were MY work, MY copyright and MY material for which I maintained control... yeah, I'd be upset. But when I do work for someone else, it is always on a work for hire agreement, and at the completion of the assignment, they own the rights to the work. There have been a few times where we have negotiated terms about maintaining my name on a piece of work, but that is always in the agreement or settles prior to the assignment being finished.
The reason I do that is because a few years ago a client was really burned by a former web designer who got insanely upset that she hired me (and fired her) to handle the
SEO and make minor changes (and I mean minor... like fixing some typos and such) to a website that she designed. My client ultimately won, but not before the former web designer reported the client to her host for copyright violations and all kind of other stuff. The client's web hosting account was actually shut down because the former designer faxed a DCMA complaint. It was a nightmare because the original design contract was so convoluted and confusing.
Like I said, my client ultimately won that battle because no matter what the contract said, the circumstances of their communication made it clear that they had a work for hire agreement and the client had the right to make those changes. It got so bad that the former web designer was insisting that she owned the client's logos and artwork, too... items she never even designed! It was crazy... and I saw what it did to that client, so I made the decision that I would never be so possessive of work i was being paid to create.
Of course, all of my contracts address the topic of using their material in my portfolio. Some things are not appropriate for a portfolio, or are confidential in nature... and sometimes I charge more for those things or make sure to get a letter of reference on the project instead. I also keep those in my portfolio.
Re: A Client Changed the Name on a Press Release I Wrote
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