I'm curious as to what these big names (Cnet, Slashdot, Businessweek or any other big news site) charge to have an article published about a new service. Does anyone know any ballpark figures? Thanks.
Free gifts and stuff, probably. Or by offering something cool to the writers. Writers can be bought, but outright asking for press I don't think is the ticket.
Do something newsworthy, write a great press release, and submit it to those places manually (not just to a general address, but a specific editor or writer), and then also manually follow up with them to make sure they received it and try to pitch the story. If there's something newsworthy, you'll get coverage. If not, you won't. Pretty simple. Jenn
But if you pester to death, phone every 5 mins and email twenty times a day. You'll get ignored. You have to accept that 99/100, a "press release" about a new website isn't newsworthy unless it's a VERY SLOW day for most places. It has to be something really special to get attention.
Actually, I run a public relations firm and have done more than just a few manual submissions in my work. 99% of the time is completely an exaggeration. The problem isn't that there's usually nothing at all newsworthy in a new website (although in itself, you're right, that's not terribly newsworthy), but the problem is that the site owners don't know how to look at other things happening around their site that tie in and can give it a good angle. The fact is, on the Web, there are many more options for coverage. New sites might not all get picked up in major publications if you simply send them over distribution sites like PRweb, but there's always the better chance that bloggers out there will pick it up and spread the news a bit. It's also not about "pestering" anyone to death. Followups to manual submissions have been pretty standard for decades. It's also very effective. I've had clients with seemingly unimportant news to most people get coverage in everything from interviews with the Philadelphia Inquirer (and a nice feature story from it) to on-air interviews on major market radio stations. It's all about personalizing it, and giving that extra pitch directly to the media contact, so your release isn't just another one in their pile. Jenn
In my experience, yes and no. My day job is editor of a large music website (other than the ones I own myself, i like to keep myself far too busy), and as such deal with a hell of a load of PRs day in day out, in about every way you could think of. Every day we're being pestered by everything from small download services to Napster or iTunes about news releases for their latest stuff. The fact is, very little of it is actually news worthy when compared to the other stuff we could be covering (actual news about bands, and the workings of the greater music industry), so doing what, to our readers is essentially an advertorial for someone else, isn't that important. I do agree that it could get picked up by some smaller places, sure, but if you're trying for the big stuff you'll need something hella interesting. It takes some really clever PR for even something as smart as Last.fm to get column space on a big news source these days, when up against all the tour dates and such. The only website I can think of which has more hits than misses is Myspace, and that's because of it's impact on the way EVERYTHING works online. I may just be grumpy, too, but followups tend to only come from those desperate for coverage, so likely not something great. I get a million phone calls a day about updates of faceless dance tracks that someone's releasing from a bedroom, or a new music related website just like any other, but, unless there's something last minute comes up related to something big, everything good goes via the email these days. The ones that are good at their job rarely follow up (maybe one email, at most), but those dealing with the stuff that seems to get no coverage anywhere are ringing up the office every 10 minutes. It seriously does come to a point where they wind our news staff up so much they dig their own grave, though I guess that makes us spoilsports I do agree that tying stuff in does help, and I admit fully that I'm coming from a very genre specific background here - I dare say technology and finance related topics, or indeed anything BUT entertainment, would, and doubtlessly is entirely different. All I mean is, if you wind a publisher, editor or writer up by flooding their inbox and blocking their phone line, you're not onto a winner. If something is newsworthy, interesting, or suits what they're doing, if they're good at their job it just takes the first contact, and possibly one follow up email to nail the task. On a side note, personalising does work, but only when it doesnt seem smarmy. 90% of the stuff I get through that's attempted to be personalised really doesn't do the job. I think everyone knows what they're out for now; PRs for publicity, publishers for a good story and increased readership, if the two match up you can call me Tinkerbell for all I care (I do admit, PR is bloody hard work though. I've worked in it briefly myself, doing it for a few small indie bands on my own label. Pulling teeth if you're not dealing with U bloody 2. Must be HELLISH trying to do it with most websites!) God, that all made me sound miserable. I think I am the grumpiest person in the world though, so don't worry - most will be much more helpfull than me. PRs must all HATE me.
Well we have a bit in common. I do PR work for indie artists as well as businesses, am the editor of an indie music site, and have also been on the receiving "media end" of press releases (currently as a Technology Editor for a network, for the music site I mentioned, and while I worked with About for a while - glad I don't get bombarded like that as much anymore). I'm not saying everyone with a basic press release should be submitting manually and making follow-up calls to "pester" anyone. I hate it as much as the next person does when I get the calls and emails. But the fact is also that sometimes we're just so overloaded with them, that if they really had something newsworthy in the first place, a simple phone call is enough to bring it back to mind and have us give it another look. I also spent time working for a large international non-profit agency, as well as a liberal arts college doing PR work. For both of them, followups weren't just a job requirement, but they were a necessity. No matter how small the news was, I could nearly always get coverage. Of course non-profits in their nature are going to have more newsworthy information. But my point is that the thing that makes it vital is that it's the best way to build media relationships, not just a contact list. And with some places, especially larger outlets, having an "in" with a journalist or editor is really the key to not being ignored even on the busiest of days. I don't think you sound particularly grumpy. But maybe that's just because I've had to work with some really nasty members of the media. If anything, you sound pretty much in the middle like most of us... seeing it from both sides (as you have too), I wonder how PR people and the Media haven't just killed each other yet sometimes...
I get some PR emails for the website email. A lot of the times it's like "HEY check out this guitarist for the band you've never heard of !!! He's got a new CD!!!!"