Looking for ways to get reporters interested in press kits, news releases and other snail-mailed announcements? Here are top tips for getting reporters to sit up and take
notice:
- Mason & Madison, a New Haven, Conn. PR firm, places a sticker on the envelope alerting the media that the release inside is free of jargon. The sticker states, "The
news release inside this envelope contains no jargon. The phrases 'solution provider, 'best of breed,' 'mission critical,' 'scalable' or 'end to end' appear nowhere in this
release. The contents include actual news and may be suitable for print." - Publicity Hound Newsletter - The editors at PR NEWS recently received a neatly hand-addressed envelope (with a pre-printed return address from a firm well-known to us, giving us no fear of potential
anthrax contamination). Inside was a mailing that read, "Why did you open this direct mailer? Because it has the personal touch that we all want!" The hand-addressed envelope was
in fact the intriguing touch that led us to believe something other than a mass direct mailing was included in the envelope. We'll admit that discovering there was no exclusive
story or personal letter inside did cause slight bruising to our egos, but the mailer offered an important lesson: When you want to catch a reporter's attention (and you know
they'll recognize your return address and won't consider your package a bio-hazard), hand-address it.