If you are using commercial anchor texts within a press release, then yes, it's dead.
If you're publishing bullshit press releases that nobody will read, then yes, it's dead.
If you're using branded or naked anchor texts within a press release, then no, it's probably not dead.
If you're publishing quality and newsworthy content that people would want to read, then no, it's not dead.
If you're publishing quality and newsworthy content using branded anchor texts, then no, it's definitely not dead.
If you're publishing bullshit press releases that nobody will read using commercial anchors, then you're going to have a bad time.
Get it yet? Do you understand? I bloody hope so! Took me around 2 minutes to explain that to you, which apparently for some needs a rocket science degree... Geez.