Evidently this artist wanted to do everything himself for a lower price and he did the mailing and just added the publicist information to the press release. I'll admit that's a bit odd way to work, since some people will assume that the publicist did all the work.
Another publicist had the habit of misspelling names of famous artists with whom her clients had played in press bios. After receiving several such mailings, I asked her about that and she replied, "Well, that's the way my clients spelled them." I told her part of her job was to double check their work. If you say that you played with "Lou Tabakin" [sic], no writer will take you seriously.
If my name is on something, like when I write liner notes, I check it over with a fine tooth comb. Among the things I've found on various CDs when I got the advance copy and credits have been: wrong musicians, dates, song titles, composers, incorrectly spelled names, plus missing instruments and lyricist credits. I usually have a person or two read my final draft and revised credits before submitting it, just to make sure I didn't add any errors of my own. Unlike on line postings, printed mistakes live forever.
Allen, I don't think any less of an artist who writes his or her own press release and does the mailing. But the number of young artists who don't give any thought to marketing and their CD's appearance is considerable. The typical new jazz program grad recruits fellow young artists, plays ten originals and does nothing to stand out from the stack of new releases writers receive. Why not record at least one familiar song, or even an unfamiliar song by a well known composer? How about getting a well known jazz educator to write a blurb?
They also could benefit from avoiding microscopic fonts and colors for type that blend into the background of the CD booklet and tray card, but that's another matter.