I want to bring you inside my inbox this week. A few days ago, I was sent a pretty decent report. I wrote up a story on it for both print and online. There was just one problem: I couldn’t copy and paste the text.
I wanted to lift a quote from the report but the text wasn’t selectable. In the end, I took a photo of the paragraphs on my phone and painstakingly typed it out on my computer. The story got the showing it deserved but the process was far more convoluted than it needed to be.
It got me thinking about something that might seem relatively minor but can make a real difference to a journalist’s working day: how you send your press releases, reports and supporting documents. I’m not going to talk about the content or layout of releases in this edition.
A few months ago, I dedicated an edition of Off the Record to sending pictures to journalists. This time, I’m looking at the art of the perfect attachment. My ultimate tip is make it as easy as possible for a journalist to find, read and use the information you’re sending us.
I’m increasingly getting full press releases via Linkedin DMs. I’ve even had one or two come via Instagram message. Some journalists I’ve spoken to have no qualms about this at all but it’s not my preference. Please email me press releases instead. I use my inbox as a search tool. This means that your release may not be one for me in this very moment but if it might be the exact thing I need at 5pm on a Friday when a major story has broken and I need to contact you on something similar. If your pitch is in my DMs somewhere, there is no chance it will save the day in a moment od need.
Occassionally, I also get press releases sent via WhatsApp. Sometime people will send me PDFs there too. I don’t mind a quick message on text to flag something that’s on email but for the same reasons above, I’d advise comms pros against this WhatsApp-only strategy (unless you know this is how the journo your’re pitching to likes to receive releases).
Now, let’s get onto practical advice for sending releases to reporters, particularly when it comes to attachments.
