Update on Press Release Information...

I don't know enough about this issue myself, to comment one way or the other. Just thought it was interesting and I'd pass it along. It's from an e-mail dialogue I had with a woman who works for a PR firm.

> One question: All of the PR Gurus say to fax your release. But you guys e-mail them? Por Que?

What PR guru says to fax a release? That's sure isn't the advice of anybody who has ever done any media relations work for very long.

There's only one instance in which you fax material into a busy media room -- imagine a room where the fax is spitting out material and 30 people are running around under deadline gun/now let's see, where is the fax? -- and that instance is when you have talked with the journalist on the phone and they've specifically said "fax me your background or whatever." Then, you have someone waiting for it. Otherwise, it's a waste of time.

First preference for distribution is always by snail mail.

Second preference is by email -- but only if the journalist has requested it. I would never encourage you to send "blind," especially with the level of spam these days. We only have media that have requested releases by email.
Third is via Biz/PR newswire, but there's some tricks to using that.

I worked on a weekly paper, a city daily newspaper and at AP in the first part of my career...and then moved into PR. Thirty years at
this, so I know just a tiny bit, I hope. I'd love to talk to this guru you mentioned. Filling people's heads up with nonsense -- just like you deal with in dog training world, I'm sure.

-A.

Hi Adam,

Thanks, that was interesting.... It does seem to contradict what I have read elsewhere, but then, she sounds like she knows what she's talking about!

Perhaps there's more to it than I understand.... (I haven't done the press release-thing yet, though it's something I really ought to do!)

Thanks for posting that!

- Dien