Commas in press releases. Optional?

[carbondating]

I've been asked to review a press release for an organisation I volunteer for. It's been written by a PR professional who has been contracted to help with a community consultation. The press release is fine, but it contains no commas, or any other punctuation other than full stops. I found myself stumbling over a couple of the sentences while I worked out where the pauses should be.

Are PR consultants rather like lawyers in being exempt from comma use? I don't want to send it back with added commas if there is some sort of unwritten code I don't know about.

Er... not as far as I know! (Am in a related business.) If the sentences are too long and you're stumbling, she is not doing a very good job!

No, it should just be written normally.

Also it’s very old fashioned to think lawyers don’t use commas, they definitely do.

Um no...it needs some commas. I'm a PR professional and, if anything, I use far too many commas.

I'd probably mention that to whoever hired them.

No-one is exempt from commas 😂

No-one is exempt from commas 😂

Yup, another or professional here who loves commas. I do avoid semi colons though. but that’s a personal preference.

I do avoid semi colons though

Two copy writing courses, 15 years in the industry, and I'm still not sure why I would ever need to use a semi-colon.

I do avoid semi colons though

Two copy writing courses, 15 years in the industry, and I'm still not sure why I would ever need to use a semi-colon.

Commas are NEVER optional! Even that Oxford jobbie.

Commas are compulsory; semi-colons are an additional delight.

There seems to be a trend of omitting commas. I review a lot of books and sometimes comment on this in my reviews, as it makes many sentences hard to fathom out. Several times the authors have responded saying that they did indeed write with the necessary commas, but the publisher or editor removed them. I don't get it! Why make something more difficult to read?