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Topic: Receiving Press Releases
| Author | Message |
| foodscribe | Posted – 4/10/2008 5:13:09 PM | show profile | email poster By what means do you prefer to receive notification of news relevant to your publication: Email, Phone, Fax, Mail? I just started handling PR for a start-up natural foods company and am trying to figure out how best to get our story across to the media. In particular, when we issue the occasional press release announcing a new product or something else of significance, I want to make sure the information is reaching the right people. In the past, we've sent out product samples accompanied by press kits. At other times, we've distributed press releases on the wire. (A note of explanation: This is my first foray into PR following a circuitous career path that?s included communications, professional cooking and newspaper journalism.) Your feedback is appreciated. |
| write2rachel | Posted – 4/10/2008 6:24:13 PM | show profile Personally, I prefer email. Samples are nice, but it's also nice to no when they are coming... so I think an email press release with an offer to test out the product is good. Good luck! ------ www.rachelcericola.com |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/11/2008 1:22:01 PM | show profile I prefer to get all (short) PR pitches via email. Books/product bulky stuff via mail. If someone asks me if they can send me a sample or product, I usually say no (I can't accept products, sometimes I can take a small sample). But if they just mail it to me, there it is, and I spend some time with it before I donate it. |
| foodscribe | Posted – 4/11/2008 4:28:32 PM | show profile | email poster How best to send information? Thanks for the responses! This is helpful. To further explain the reason for my questions, we just fired our PR agency this week, so all PR is now being handled in-house, mostly by me: the rookie. Having worked as a reporter previously, I'm sensitive to the fact that reporters don't want to get bombarded with irrelevant information, so I'm trying make sure my pitches are aimed at the right people and have some substance. I have a two-part question. First of all, I'm wondering about how reporters feel about receiving product samples. Our former PR agency had taken the approach of doing a mass mailing of our product (natural snack foods) to consumer and trade mags as well as newspapers, accompanied by letters that (to my horror) were not customized (e.g. "Dear Food Editor"). Not only was this an expensive undertaking, I'm also not sure it accomplished much. I'm curious to hear opinions on this approach. Part II: We have a (timely, relevant) press release going out shortly. Without the PR agency, we have no software to distribute it. How would you want to receive it? My idea: paste it into the body of an email below a note tailored to the recipient (done via mail merge). Add a descriptive subject line. Send only to those for whom the information would be useful. Thoughts? |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/11/2008 5:56:21 PM | show profile Food is always good. |
| linjohn | Posted – 4/11/2008 6:20:47 PM | show profile I'm a publicist, and I usually copy the body of the release in the email - no attachments. I always address the exact editor, though - Dear So and So - never Dear Food Editor or blind copied. Then I launch into the pitch. If you know the publication, it helps to say that you are pitching it for a specific section - "new product news," "health flash," "food frenzy!"etc. All of this will take you more time than a mail merge or a blind-copied, mass email, but it is time well spent. If you have samples, I would suggest sending them along with a hard copy of the press release - addressed, of course, to the appropriate editor and possibly with a handwritten note explaining what section you think it would work for. But if this is more of a company announcement and there is no new product to try, I think email should be fine. |
| write2rachel | Posted – 4/11/2008 10:41:50 PM | show profile I think you are on the right track with sending it via email. I don't even mind if I get emails that say "dear editor," as long as they are applicable. Mail that isn't addressed properly... well, it usually doesn't make it to the right person, I think! |
| wineaux | Posted – 4/12/2008 11:04:43 AM | show profile | email poster As you know, the business of food pr is a whole different beast than most other product topics. Packaging is almost or often more important than taste, when it comes to getting a buzz created around a product. Who you are sending the product to is the most important thing to consider when sending the product, the press release, or anything else about the product out there. I think you mentioned that the product is a snack food? That makes things a lot easier:I would send a hard cover copy of the press release, and I'd have some other smaller, less wordy piece of marketing go along w/ it (make sure you have your website addy on the smaller piece of marketing material, b/c as you know, sometimes they can totally ignore a press release, but will scan a piece of material about a product if it takes them less than 12 seconds to understand what you're plugging). I would additionally send the press release IN the body of an email, addressed directly to the appropriate editor, and hopefully have a cool graphic of the packaging of the product or some other type of visual for product identification. I've been plugging food and bev products (pr and marketing) for sometime, so if you want to email me, I'll enable. |
| wineaux | Posted – 4/12/2008 11:06:33 AM | show profile sorry, I forgot to add a pertinant piece of info:when you send the hard copy, send the sample of your product along with it. |
