Link Building Issue

Handling Old Press Releases on Brand Website

[Young_Bee]

What is the best way to handle decade old press releases on a brand website? Currently we are keeping old PRs in archive, my problem is
#1 it’s making the site heavy &
#2 some of the backlinks are killed by PR site owners.
What do I do with old press releases where links are killed? Should I use 404 or 301 to other relevant pages?
Also, what do I do with event pages where company had participated in previous years for example ChicagoBooth, which has backlink to this site but it’s replaced by this year event.

Any comments would be highly appreciated.

[engine]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Young_Bee

Ideally, you want to retain the old press releases in an archive.

If there's not too many, search to see how many are indexed, and how many are linked. If you have to move them, you can decide if a 301 is better. If there are links, a 404 is a waste of traffic. Give your visitors what they came for, and better still, add value. 404 doesn't usually add value.

[Young_Bee]

Thank you Engine for the quick reply.