In the old world, press releases were the preferred route to communicate important messages about your business or organization. Quarterly earnings? Press release. New board member? Press release.  New product? Sure, there may be a blog or video, but typically only after the press release.

Then the higher powers (those brainiacs from Harvard, MIT and Stanford) created Web 2.0.

Now, some employee can catch wind of something, blog about it anonymously and it shows up in your Google alert with your company’s name on it. And changing your Network on Facebook is basically sending a press release to your friends saying “Hey! I changed jobs/cities!” Subsequent wall postings with “congrats” and “what next?” are to be expected.

In essence, the press release’s main job – to share previously withheld information with the public – is no longer one of exclusivity. Almost daily, Google uses its company blog or its policy blog to share company information ranging from energy initiatives to new features on Gmail, and CEO Eric Schmidt himself is a contributor.

Similarly, you’re more likely to hear about a new Apple product through an online video (and you know they’re really good at those) than from a press release. Even fresh startup companies and Inc. 500 blue-chippers have the mind to blog their experiences and happenings, to get the attention of top bloggers, more often than they’re issuing press releases to attract reporters.

That being said, there is still great value in the press release.

Sure, the exclusivity of information is gone. Your company Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages may publicize the same news within minutes of the release’s distribution. And your CEO may blog about it that evening after he or she is done with rounds of media interviews (and a conference call with key bloggers).

But the reach of a press release still dwarfs that of any other distribution system if you’re willing to pay for it. And, since companies are still figuring out how much “this social media stuff” costs, chalking up several thousands of dollars a year for PRNewswire or Business Wire accounts still makes sense. The Internet can’t do it all. Yet.

So while Google, Apple and other cutting-edge companies appear to be outliers with regard to their methods for broadcasting major announcements, the learning curve of other Fortune companies is rounding out nicely and the press release, as we knew it, will never mean as much as it once did.