Praxis Makes Perfect

One of the two biggest gripes journalists have about media relations is PR practitioners who call to ask the classic time-waster, “Did you get my release?” (The top complaint is getting off-target pitches that demonstrate the PR rep has no clue what areas the journalist covers.)

Journalists get so many such calls in a week that many have taken to never answering their office fone, and just letting their voice mail fill up with inquiries they never plan to answer.

Every e-mail pitch you send should have return- and read-receipts set, which might provide clues unless the recipient has set her e-mail to not return any receipts. But even without such indications, if the journalist got and opened your pitch or press release and hasn’t gotten back to you for more info, she’s either not interested or has been putting off the call for some reason. (Perhaps to file the pitch for later use as an evergreen.)

If you want to know what the journalist thinks of your pitch, you have a choice of e-mail, fone call or personal visit (for local media outlets) for follow-up. But when you call, the first question you should ask is never “Did you get my release?” but, rather, “Are you on dedline, or do you have a minute to hear about (X)?”

Of course, you already should know what her dedlines are, making the first part of your question unnecessary. But asking it demonstrates professional courtesy, and a journalist may have unanticipated dedlines imposed suddenly.

Alternatively, you can ask “Are you on dedline? If not, I’m just calling to find out if you’d like more information about (X), or whether you were satisfied with the details in the e-mail I sent you.”

Make sure (X) is framed as (for example) “[Name of Product X], the new iPhone app that does (Y).” You never want to simply use the name without identifying what it is or does.

The second part of the question—whether the journalist was satisfied with the details of your e-mail—is the key to your call, enabling you to transform the hated “Did you get my release?” follow-up into a (cold) pitch call.

The journalist may not remember your e-mail, and might ask you what its subject line was so she can look for it in her Inbox. After listening to your refresher pitch, she might request you resend your e-mail. Or she may ask you for more details while you’re on the fone. You might get a bite, or a rejection—but, either way, you didn’t waste her time with “Did you get my release?” and that earns you professional points.

Many journalists understand that a follow-up call is just a standard PR practice, and won’t hold it against you so long as you conform to the above conventions. But you still shouldn’t count on having more than 60 seconds to turn your follow-up call into a pitch.