Press Release Tips

 for PR People

by Andrew Kantor, Senior Editor, Internet World

         published with permission    

I get a gazillion press releases every day.  I also get half a gazillion phone calls, many about those very press releases.  Most of the mail ends up in the garbage (or the trashcan, depending), and many of the phone calls aren't returned.

In a seemingly unending effort to help public relations people get the hang of giving me--and, I believe, other press people--information we can use, here are my Tips for getting Your press Release read and mentioned.  There are only eight; I'd like to expand it to ten.

1.    Know who you're writing to and what we want.  I get a lot of releases that we never use (promotions, new hires, non-Internet products), and a look at an issue or two would make that obvious.  Yes, I know you've simply pulled me from your database as 'computer-magazine editor', but those databases are sophisticated enough nowadays that you can filter on the type of release you sent.

2.    Think whether it's something we cover.  Again, if you read the magazine you'll see that we rarely if ever mention new Web sites unless there's something very special about them.  Still, I get calls and letters about such-and-such a company's new Web site.  For an Internet magazine that�s not news, guys.  Everybody's on the Net.

3.    Know my lead time.  Monthly magazines typically have lead time of 2 to 4 months.  Calling me on August 1 to say "I hear you're covering Net publishing in your September issue" doesn't make sense.  (This also applies if you're releasing a product in six months; refusing to tell me about it for secrecy just means I won't write about it until a few months after it's available.  That's bad for us both.  Ask me; I sign NDAs.)

4.    Don't annoy me with follow-ups.  Trust the mail.  Trust the Internet.  Trust my fax machine.  If you sent it, I got it.  (Sorry about the tone on this one.  It's a pet peeve.)

5.    Keep your database up-your-date.  Press releases sent to editors who are no longer with us end up on my desk, and I almost always toss them.  If you can't bother to check the masthead twice a year�.

6.    Remember that I'm an editor on deadline.  Setting up a half-hour conference call with your president to tell me about your new product--when a press release would have given me all the relevant information--just wastes your time and annoys the editor.  Like #4 says: If I'm interested I'll call you with questions.  Really!

7.    Get my name right.  It's not hard to spell.  (And try to get the title right too, although I can't say I mind mail to "Andrew Kantor, Editor-in -Chief.")

8.     Don't be familiar.  I don't have a nickname in my signature.  I don't use one in real life.  If you use one in a press release (i.e., "Andy") I get cross and throw it out.  (The same goes for a voice mail message--as soon as I hear "Hi, Andy," I hit the Erase Message button.  I'm not joking.)  You wouldn't call Rich Santilesa "Dick", would you?  So, unless you know me, don't use a nickname.