The care and feeding of the press a guide for press relations staff (or those who play them on TV) by Esther Schindler, for the Internet Press Guild, with the input of many other members Why this document? Whenever groups of people with a common interest get together, the conversation turns to the subjects they have in common. Among the many ongoing conversations among the members of the Internet Press Guild (editors, writers, and freelancers on Internet topics) has the frustrations of dealing with "PR people." That's what we call you when we're feeling kind. The language is often much more colorful. You need us to cover the products you're responsible for, whether they're your own creation or you work for a public relations firm responsible for getting coverage for your company's products. We need information from you, too. In order to save our sanity -- and to enhance our ability to work together -- we have put together this small guide, explaining the journalist's side of the story. Besides, current practices are leading to diminishing returns. We encourage you to share this information with your clients so that they can start thinking about the wisdom of current metrics (number of people called, etc.) of PR success. After all, in the end, it's not how many contacts you make; it's how many contacts lead to a press release actually getting coverage. Getting our attention Empathy makes a big difference. If you want our attention, please recognize that we writers are inundated with information. We professional writers get dozens of press releases every day -- sometimes hundreds of them, during "busy times" like the weeks before Comdex. If you want to work with us effectively, it will help YOU to fit yourself into our way of working... or at least to understand it. First, let's assume you wrote some press releases and put together a press kit. Your job is to write a press release that makes me want to read it -- and use it. Remember: less is more. If you must write a press release that is longer than a page and a half, do so as if you will lose one article for every paragraph that goes over that limit. Write as if you're working for Joe Friday: "Just the facts." Tell us simply: who you are, what you're announcing, why we care. If you must include a quote from an executive make it more substantive than, "We're going to revolutionize the category." Cut the buzzwords: Do you think Joe Friday would finish reading something that started, "HYPERSOFT, INC. announces its all-new interactive, interoperable, cross-platform, new multimedia solution."? Include a quick, bulleted fact sheet: * What the product is * When it was first released * What platforms it runs on, and what are the configuration requirements * How much it costs. (If this is "a market-leading breakthrough price point"-- then give us the history of its pricing: Introduced in Jan. of '94 at $12,500. Dropped in Jan. '95 to $495. Now $19.95 with free ginzu knives.) * Contact people--for the press * URLs and other contact information for the general public Give us who/what/when/where/why as articulately as you can. Some vendors have the mistaken impression that not telling us how much a product costs or when it will be available will get us to pick up the phone to ask you. You're wrong. Don't bother including a trinket with your press kit. Ask yourself why you're even considering doing so. It won't convinces me of the worthiness of your software, more or less, so in most cases it's a waste of money. I'd rather you use the money, instead, to take the time for _thoughtful_ email follow-ups ensuring that I got the package. I'll use your corkscrew. I won't throw it out. But it doesn't buy you anything, in any sense of the word. Above all, GET TO THE POINT. Here's one interaction that a member of the Internet Press Guild had with a PR person: Subject: Re: Announces > I am writing to alert you of a recent news release (Sheesh, either you're sending it or you ain't.) > that is of great interest to your audience. (Which audience? Wanna bet? How much? Why don't you let me be the judge.) > This release addresses (If I can't figure it out from the release itself, you folks need a new release writer.) Corresponding with the press Now that you have a press kit, you want to get it to us. Most journalists prefer that you send press releases via email. You'll find some die-hard snail mail folks, and a few who like faxes. (If you're unsure, and about to start working with a journalist who is new to you, *ask.* That's especially true if you intend to send a fax, since faxes cost *us* money to receive. Make sure I want to get that fax, or I'll be annoyed that you're tying up my phone lines.) E-mail should be sent as a plain text file. Remember that you're essentially sending something that nobody really wants to read--it should therefore follow logically that nobody will bother to decode it. If you have a full press kit with screen shots and four part harmony, mention in your email that a full press kit is available, and only send it to those who ask. (Doing so will save you money anyway.) Never, *never* send a binary file unsolicited. It's an obnoxious presumption. You don't know where I am when I receive the message, I could be calling in long distance on my laptop, with barely enough room left on the hard disk. This is one of the major annoyances we complain about between ourselves, and most of us will delete unsolicited binary files without reading them. Generally, you should never call to find out if we received your press release. If we're interested, you'll hear from us. (If we have already established an ongoing relationship because I've covered your products earlier, it's okay to send a follow up email, a few days later, to ask if I have any questions. That's it.) Nothing sets a writer or editor's teeth on edge more than an eager young voice saying, "I'm calling to see if you got the press release." It is unfortunately common practice to have follow-up calls made by the most junior (read: clueless) members of an agency, but by doing so, you hurt both your clients and your own reputation. And whoever calls--have something substantive to add. The basic rule is: DON'T CALL. If I'm in the middle of a deadline and you call to say something stupid, I promise you that I will snarl. Remember that "Contributor" or "Contributing Editor" most likely means the person works at home. Remember that s/he is likely keeping odd hours. Never call before 11:00am. And for godsakes, never call a West Coast-based person at 7am Eastern time, thinking you'll get an answering machine! Because many of us work at home, the "don't call" rule can be especially important. For example, some writers who collect, review, or judge Web sites sleep days and surf nights (or it would take three times as long to do our jobs); they leave the phone plugged in because children are out of town or in school, or they want to be available to a spouse. Getting a call from a PR person in the day time would be like them getting a call from a writer at home in the middle of the night. If you really want to find the "right people," the best course of action is this: Buy magazines and write down the people on the masthead. Get e-mail addresses from the Web site for staffers (and sometimes contributors). Take down the names of contributors and contributing editors (freelancers) and look up their e-mail addresses on the Web. This is cheap, and it's the easiest way to be accurate. What a press kit should contain: A short written explanation about what the product is, who it's aimed for, and what features or capabilities make it worth my time. Don't waste words telling me that it's great, unique, awesome -- I'll make my own evaluation and will discount yours. A remarkable number of vendors forget the "basics," such as name and address, e-mail, on the disks again to make it easier to track back to the author if questions come up. (Strangely enough, many vendors forget to put this information on their web sites as well.) If the technology is *new* (this means you have _invented_ the first firewall or the first proxy server, the first streaming audio, or Java --not a better one or an extension to something we already understand), by all means include a white paper or something that explains the basic whats and wherefores with little diagrams, and have the developer or inventor ready to explain what I don't understand or to let me run my understanding of it by that person to see if I really get it or just think I do. Please don't tell me you think that sounds right if you don't have absolute knowledge, or tell me that you'll check, then play a game of "telephone" or "gossip" where you don't understand the question you're passing on and come back with an idiotic answer that doesn't adress my question, then get huffy when I ask you again. If you don't know, please give me the person who certainly does and get out of the way. And we don't need you on a conference call when it happens. I can't hear, and it makes the technoids too nervous to talk. They aren't conference call people, and neither am I, and I'll bet they won't destroy your company if you let them have a conversation all by themselves. Once we're in touch... You want your product, or your client's product, to get as much ink as possible. You hope that when we writers say things about the product, the remarks will be positive. The single most important advice I can give you is to *make it blissfully easy to cover your product.* Deliver to me what you promise, when you promise it. It's to your benefit to act swiftly and "look helpful" but to stay out of my way, as if we were cooking together in a kitchen and I was deep frying in hot oil. Here's one example of how _not_ to do it. I asked a vendor for a copy of their program at a trade show, as I was positive I could sell an article about the topic. It never arrived. When I finally called wrote to them to nag for a copy, they responded by giving us an ftp site and a password. I *hate* that. If a company wants me to look at a product, why the hell should I have to go out of my way to look at it? It's their job to make it incredibly convenient to examine the software. It should show up at my doorstep, preferably within two business days. (I honestly do forget that I asked for something, and then it arrives weeks later and I say, "What was this about?") Because you sent the product, an email, or a press release to one person at a publication, don't imagine that it reaches everyone at or associated with the publication. As was mentioned earlier, learn that "contributing editor" means "a freelancer we like a lot." ("Senior contributing editor" means "a freelancer we like a *heck* of a lot, and the editor-in-chief will buy her dinner when they happen to be in the same city.") If you send a press release or a box of software to the magazine I write for, don't imagine for a moment that I know about it. Even within the on-site staff of big magazines, never imagine that people talk to one another. In the biggest magazines, people barely have time to wave at each other in the hallways. Besides, even among journalists who are friends, we actively compete with one another and tend to hoard information. On the other side of things, though, note that writers, freelancers, and editors *do* talk with (and about!) each other. And yes, we talk about you vendors, both positively and negatively. That's our "shop talk." "Gee, you wouldn't believe what happened when I reviewed one of XYZ's products a couple of years ago. They spent twenty minutes on the phone yelling at me for giving them a bad review, when the thing wouldn't even install! They threatened to sue the magazine when they didn't get the editor's top pick, too." No freelancer who heard such a story would go out of her way to write about XYZ's products, or if so they wouldn't do it with a trusting heart. Don't screw us. We remember. And there's an old saying about not going to battle with anyone who buys ink by the barrel. Also note that I get new software dropped on my doorstep every single day. I might tell you, "Sure, send me a copy!" but --especially with freelancers-- that does not, by any stretch of the imagination, imply that I will review it or that I will even try to do so. I might not get a chance to look at it. I might look at it, but be unable to convince an editor that it deserves mention or fits in their limited domain. ("We don't review utilities here.") Great. You're being reviewed. Now what? Apparently you've followed all my advice explicitly, because you got some sort of notice that a writer will be reviewing your product for some fancy publication. Cool! Now, how do you deal with the press person during this process? -- Get me the information I ask for, when I want it, in the fashion I want it. I promise you that I will want it immediately, with an unreasonable deadline. Cope with it. I have an unreasonable deadline too. If I tell you that I'm reviewing your product, unless I tell you otherwise that means "Send it FedEx overnight, to arrive by 10 a.m." Whatever you do, *make it incredibly easy for me to do business with you.* Don't tell me to go to an ftp site. Even if your application is a tiny shareware program, send me a diskette (with the *registered* version, please). Don't send a demo version; we don't review demos. We review applications. Many of us got into this business because we really love software, and we consider the software part of our pay. If you send a version that expires, you practically guarantee that we won't pitch your product to an editor again, because we've been robbed -- often deceptively. Sure -- you've successfully bamboozled the reviewer and prevented him from playing with your product once the review was in, but we'll be here next year and the next. And we'll be pitching products from vendors that don't do that. Besides, we can almost always guess a product is cheesy before even plugging it in because the small-thinking vendor has put more effort into seeing that we don't "steal" it than in making a product anyone would want. Check my address first. Many PR people depend on a publication called "Media Map" (it costs them $1500/year so they'd better do so) which lists all sorts of press people and media personalities, contact information and description of what they do. Unfortunately, the address Media Map has for me is wrong, so anything sent by a "thoughtful" PR person who didn't verify the address with me is sitting in front of an unoccupied office in a bad neighborhood. Always, when you send the package, enclose something that provides what I call the "About" box data. That's the information you'll find in the "at a glance" box alongside a review, citing the product's full name (and version), the company's full official name, the product list price (yes, I KNOW that nobody pays list), company address, phone, fax, email and/or web address. It's amazing how often I have to scurry for this information at the last minute, which is generally 11pm on a Sunday night. -- Be available to answer any questions I might have, but don't be a pest. It's fine to send an email the day after I should have received the package, to verify that I got it. (Don't call. An email is friendly; a call is intrusive.) It's also fine for you to give me your own contact information and schedule at that point, and to offer assistance. "I'll be around all week, but if you have any questions about the product you might want to note that I'll be offline all weekend." Don't be offended if I don't contact you. Ordinarily, if I need technical support I will do it anonymously if at all possible. (My readers won't be able to call the PR department and get personal attention from the marketing manager.) It's okay --and generally expected-- that if I have a "long" lead time for a review (say, two or three weeks), that you'll email or call me about a week after you sent the product to say, "How's it going?" (Some writers say they *still* don't want a call. Err on the side of email.) If any minor questions have come up, this is the point at which I'd be likely to ask them. That one phone call is enough, unless I make it very obvious that you're welcome to call or I need more information. If you promise me information, though, *deliver it.* And do it within the time constraints that I have to live with. Every time you fail to deliver, you make ME look bad to my editor. I don't like that, and if it occurs with any regularity or over a long period of time, I will refuse to write about your products henceforth. I want my editors to think well of me because *THEY* are the ones who sign those pretty pieces of paper that say, "Pay to the order of." -- Never try to get more or better attention by mentioning whether you advertise in the publication, or how much you do so. To a writer, there is nothing that is more of a turnoff. I don't know if you advertise. I don't want to know. I don't care. If I do know, I ignore that knowledge. It has nothing whatsoever to do with my job, which is to examine the product from the viewpoint of my readers and to tell them (a) what your company claims the product does (b) how well it actually does it and (c) whether my readers should fork over their hard-earned clams to get it. To mention anything in regard to advertising is to imply (intentionally or otherwise) that your advertising is in some way related to the content of the review. I don't deal well with that sort of threat, and if I permit myself to have ANY response to it, it will be negative towards your company and possibly towards the product. -- Understand that YOU WILL NOT BE TOLD ABOUT THE CONTENTS OF ANY REVIEW. EVER. My editor is paying me to give my opinion of the product to my readers. While I understand fully that you want to know my response, and why you feel that way, I'm never going to tell you about it. First, I'm writing for the readers, and not for your approval or disapproval. Second, if I said anything with which you disagreed, since my lead time from article submission to paper is usually measured in months, you would have the opportunity to complain to the publication (and to the world in general) before the readers even knew about the review. I won't tell you what I said. Don't even ask. You will see it when it reaches print, at the same time the readers see it. (The only slight exception to this is if you're a vendor on the other side of the world. If you're in Australia and the publication is in the U.S., if you ask the editorial staff if they could PLEASE fax you a copy of the article as soon as it goes to subscribers, they'll generally comply. But that's an editorial decision, not one I would make. Note that you'd arrange this with the EDITORS, not with me.) --Don't try to tell me what I'll think. Give me product information related to technology or usability. ("Our application is the only one that prints flowcharts in color.") Don't tell me how great it is, or how much I'm going to like it, or how much my readers will be interested in this subject. That's MY decision and determination, not yours. You probably love your product, and it's okay for that enthusiasm to show... but that's a different issue. Similarly, while I'm thrilled that you provide copious information, don't be expected if I don't use it. Some vendors have offered me bit-mapped screen shots of their products. Learn about the nature of the publication and its purpose before you even offer such a thing; also ask what format they'd need it in, etc. I would NEVER contemplate including a vendor's screen shot in any review I wrote (though I've been told of other publications that would); I consider taking screen shots about my user experience part of the "tell the reader how it really works" part of my job. Other publications, though, *do* want a screen shot because they'll use it in product announcements. These are very different from reviews, in that they don't speak about the publication's opinion of the product but only about what the company says the product is or does. (Therefore they can also print a picture of what the company says the product is or does, i.e. your screen shot.) Readers are expected to tell the difference, though I don't think that most of them do. Note, though, that these are usually *very* tiny pictures, often 1 inch square. You can't fit anything complex in such a tiny space so anything that doesn't fit the publication's own style gets dumped. -- Don't waste my time. I'm a chatty person. I like to talk with vendors, and I spend a lot of my day writing email and talking on the phone. But if I say, "I've gotta go," then *let me go.* Don't waffle around. It's okay for ME to decide to go into chat mode, but you should have a clear idea of what message or question you have for me, and get right to it. (This is one example that demonstrates the superiority of email. You can be a little more chatty, and I'm free to scan by it if I choose to. But remember that you run the risk of losing my attention.) Please keep in mind that I get well over 100 email messages a day, and see an average of 30 press releases a day. More prominent writers get much more. You have to get my attention quickly or you won't have it at all. After the review prints Okay, let's say that I wrote a review of your product, and as far as you're concerned it's the most inaccurate thing you'd ever seen. You're incensed that I got product features wrong, that I said the software was fit only to line birdcages, etc. What's the proper thing to do? As soon as you discover the error, send me an email, with a cc: to my editor. Don't simmer. Don't wait three months before you lodge a complaint. (If nothing else, if you're right and the author is wrong, you'll want the error correction to appear in print as soon as possible.) As unemotionally as you can, point out the errors and omissions, and cite as many unbiased facts as you can manage. "The reviewer said that our application won't print in color; this is incorrect, and I'd be happy to send you sample printouts to demonstrate this." Don't accuse others of malice. Don't mention that you're an advertiser; it's not relevant. While writers do occasionally make mistakes, approach the situation with the attitude that *surely* there must have been some misunderstanding, and couldn't the editor help you to unravel it? At this point your real contact is with the editor, not the writer. Though, since it's fairly obvious that the editor will correspond about your complaint with the writer, you can save time by sending that cc:. If you're not sure which editor to correspond with, this is one of the few times you can feel safe in writing to the editor in chief; while she might not be the appropriate person to handle the situation, she'll definitely forward it, and it doesn't hurt to have her cognizant of your (presumably justified) situation. While all this is going on, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT about the errors. If your customers write to say, "Hey, Mumble Magazine said that your application won't print in color!" then respond in a manner that tells them you're talking with the magazine to find out what the problem was. Don't leave messages on the internet news groups saying that the writer was an idiot and made factual errors -- especially if you don't bother to tell the writer or editor that you did so. (That's happened.) Whether or not your complaints are justified... well, remember that point I made earlier that "Writers talk with one another"? The vendor who pulled that stunt is going to have a VERY VERY hard time getting anyone to review his product, ever again. During this process, politeness earns you a lot. While everyone concerned can understand why you're upset (especially if you're right!), anger gets in the way of finding a peaceful resolution. If you behave yourself well under fire, both editor and writer will notice... and you might "win" more in the long run.