By Darren Johnson
Campus News
Dear PR People:
Along with Campus News, I also publish a print community paper. It goes to press twice a month. We get a lot of press releases from local community groups and try to get them in — at least as a blurb — but many don’t make it into print. Realize, it’s a lot of work for one person to put together a 40-page paper, so these are the main reasons they may not get in the paper:
- The timing doesn’t work. For example, just after we printed the current issue, I got a few press releases for events happening, say, the 26th or 27th of this month. Our next paper doesn’t print until July 1. I guess if we were a true weekly or daily paper, we could fit them in, but for our print readers, they don’t work.
- They are poorly written, and I don’t have time to fix them. I might get a release in ALL CAPS, written in the first-person, maybe full of opinion and not fact, misspellings, weird syntax, odd abbreviations, etc. If I get 100 press releases for an issue — not unusual — the ones that require a lot of work to make credible just are going to be ignored. Suggestion: Maybe ask ChatGPT to fix your release?
- They look like spam in my inbox so I never open them in the first place. Please send emails from a credible email address with your name on it and give it a subject line that shows it’s a local email. Maybe put the town name in the subject line.
- You send me too many emails, so I don’t know which ones are important.
- You did get it to me in time, but it was also sent to lots of other papers that will print it first because they have different print deadlines, so I don’t prioritize a release that isn’t a “scoop.”
- You don’t subscribe to the paper. I figure you’re not going to know anyway if I don’t run your release, so, whoops, delete.
- Irrelevance. You didn't research the newspaper -- it's obvious you don't read it -- and pitched me something that isn't in our coverage area, and/or isn't something we normally cover.
- I don't trust you. You've sent me other un-useful items in the past, so won't open your email because your usefulness batting average is so low.
- You really should buy an ad, instead. If you’re doing a $150 a plate fundraiser, it’s kind of unneighborly not to throw a plate’s worth of advertising to the newspaper that gives you free press all year long. But, also, the ad would certainly result in more plates being sold, so it’s a win-win to advertise. Don’t you believe in us?
- You are a for-profit business. I rarely run press releases from for-profit businesses. Again, buy an ad. Advertising should be a part of your business model, anyway.
Ultimately, being a good PR person means you being a good person. Do your research, put your best foot forward. Don't try to trick me or waste my time.
But there are lots of PR people who do send me useful items all of the time. In fact, if I have a hole in the newspaper, I search my inbox for their names because I know their work will fit oh so nice.
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