Who sends out press releases on Labor Day

Next to New Year's Day and Christmas Eve, Labor Day is about as dead a news day can be. Most people are off swinging in a hammock or firing up the barbecue. But there are some determined souls who believe this is the ideal day to issue a press release.

The odds are already very slim that reporters will pick up a press release shot out over one of the paid syndicates from a non-public company. Couple that with the fact that today is a national holiday, the press is on skeleton staff, newspaper are thinner than usual, and nobody wants to work. So you really have to scratch you head about what the communications strategy is in determining that this was the best day to issue these particular missives.

Here are four favorites, non-public companies who paid money to send out press releases on Labor Day...

• "ONLINE DATING CREATES PALACES OF HOPE, LABYRINTHS OF SUSPICION": An immediate candidate for the Press Release Headline Hall of Fame, this release functions as a warning to beware "fly by night" dating site operators. In the third paragraph, we finally get around to learning that "complete disclosure earns consumer trust and breeds success as exhibited by a handful of international sites that pride themselves on having nothing to hide. One such portal is Anastasia International, a premiere online dating resource for Western men seeking women from Russia & CIS for friendship and marriage."

• "CELEBRATE PAYDAY AND FATTEN YOUR PAYCHECK DURING NATIONAL PAYROLL WEEK": You can't stop the American Payroll Association from plugging the "annual campaign [that] recognizes the contribution of our nation's workforce and the payroll professionals who pay them, providing strength and prosperity for America."

• "MIDLAND, MICHIGAN VOTED AMERICA'S BEST TENNIS TOWN": In the middle of all the exciting US Open matches and upsets, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) wants to remind you that Midland, which is northwest of Saginaw, best exemplifies "the passion, excitement, spirit and impact that tennis brings to the local level."

• "ONLINE SINGING CONTEST WEBSITE GIVES HUGE OPPORTUNITY TO INDEPENDENT ARTISTS": While social media has changed how musicians promote themselves, "TheNetStar.com is offering a unique way for new artists to get a recording contract valued at over $75,000." Unfortunately, we never learn what that unique way is in the press release.