As if the media didn't have enough worries prescreening bin Laden's home videos, now opening the mail is a challenge. We confess that the current anthrax scare has even the
valiant editors of PRN unusually skittish about snail mail. PR NEWS Advisory Board members Katie Paine (Delahaye Medialink), Lisa Kovitz (Burson-Marsteller) and Alisa Fogelman-
Beyer (Hill & Knowlton) serve up advice for handling media:
Paine: "It's not like reporters need another excuse to not open their
mail. They never wanted to open it before; now I can pretty much guarantee that
any press release mailed will be tossed. What that means, I suspect, is that
reporters will turn to Web sites for information ([email protected])
Kovitz: "In a breakfast seminar for Women Executives in PR, we recommended
calling before you send anything, putting your name, address and phone on all
packages, and no more cutesy deliveries that have a weird gimmick (like confetti).
Think about postcards that don't have the envelope problem. One-on-one contact
will come back to fashion." ([email protected])
Fogelman-Beyer: "We are looking at any campaign that requires us to
send products through mail to media sources. We will be sending items that are
of critical importance to a client only." ([email protected])