You can't win for losing. Despite regularly voiced complaints from reporters, editors, et al., that their inboxes are flooded with e-mail, 59% of the 147,900 media
pros who responded to a recent Bacon's Information survey said they wanted to get story pitches from PR professionals electronically. Wacky? You bet, but for PR pros
journalists are the gatekeepers.
It's not much of a mystery why so many e-mails get nuked: lame subject lines that fail to communicate what the story is about. "I think it's a re-education," says Ruth
McFarland, senior VP/publisher of Bacon's Information, who adds that she receives several messages everyday from confused PR execs and frustrated reporters alike, wondering how to
improve e-mail communications.
By making information accessible at first glance and writing subject lines that point to larger trends, executives instantly increase their chances of getting some feedback;
while the suggestion sounds glib, senior PR execs have yet to strike a balancing act between word quality and word quantity. Researching reporters' beats and sending releases to
the right people cannot be underestimated, either, as the courtesy of forwarding e-mails to the proper recipient is being replaced by a more convenient alternative: the delete
button.
Contact: Ruth McFarland, 312.986.2728; [email protected]