Comments on: Your Press Release Failed, Who’s to Blame?

By: LukyBoys

LukyBoys — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:28:30 +0000

Thanks big for a post. Do not prompt what at you e-mail? Is pair questions. P.S. Your constant reader from Russia.

By: A dust collecting fool

A dust collecting fool — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:39:54 +0000

It is hard to get a press release put out to the internet effectively because of the spam factors.They are just a promotional tool that is on going process.

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:20:46 +0000

Well, Jeff… I am glad that your quest for “some PR company” lead you here…

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:50:26 +0000

I found this article while I was searching for some PR company. Thank you for such a valuable article and comments!

By: Jason Soung

Jason Soung — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:45:14 +0000

Thanks for your brilliant comments, MIhaela. A task of mine is to research it. Hope for more your articles.

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:34:07 +0000

That’s very good advice, Theo. It is actually one of Pamil Visions’ “best practices” as well. I just didn’t discuss it in this article, as I plan a follow up. We often create industry specific, highly targeted contact lists for our customers and we include in these lists only contacts that gave us their permission to send them news. These are also contacts who are obviously interested in the topics we want them to cover. But building such lists is extremely time consuming and costly – only a client with a strong PR budget can afford the technique – although once you have the contacts the value starts to show.

About the press release distribution services I mentioned: free services don’t have a database large enough to afford to send the news to target specific journals and other news outlets. But BusinessWire; GlobalNewswire and PRWeb do send the news to newspapers and Associated Press and Reuters. If the topic is newsworthy and it actually gets published by Reuters and AP all major newspapers will publish the news as well. To “paraphrase” our first commenter: “it’s that simple.”

By: TDMV

TDMV — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:10:39 +0000

You’re right, Mihaela. Luckily, my business is specialised. There are only a handful of journalist that write about it, so by getting to know them personaly, I can cover the whole field. In my experience, many journalists are freelancers, always looking for new stories. This is no guarantee that they will write about everything I let them know, but they will at least listen to me.

My penny for the readers: search the news in your particular field, and look for recurring names. Then try to contact them. Even if they’re not interested in you right away, at least they start getting to know your name. That’s what I call: planting a seed! In time it will grow.
Theo

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:15:27 +0000

As you see, Theo, some agencies even use spamming as an “effective” method. This gives a very bad name to my profession and it makes it even harder for many ethical PRs to do their job. I advise: always go with a reputable distribution service. For “personal” contacts with journalists go with a company with proven experience in this field, or try to make the ontacts yourself. It’s hard, but rewarding.

By: TDMV

TDMV — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:53:52 +0000

Thank you for this article, Mihaela. Very enlightening. For my business I deal quite a lot with the press, either giving interviews or information about certain subjects. I do this for free: in return I get their contact adresses
However, in the near future my business will set up other branches, and then it’s good to know how these agencies work.

Theo

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:39:51 +0000

You mean a service like yours? Don’t make me laugh. And you spam my site with your antagonistic comments and keywords in the signature, hoping that I will not delete your link? That’s even funnier.

Sorry, pal. Link deleted. Thank you for your effort though.