You Need to Time Your Pitch to Earn Media

A friend, who is also a journalist, shared her frustration late last week through Facebook.

"If you want a chance of me looking at your release, please drop it into the body of the email and don't just send an attachment."

Someone quickly commented this is "Press Release 101" and we couldn't agree more. We'll also note that a press release is NOT a pitch.

Friday, Friday, Gotta Pitch Late on Friday
But the above vent continued in her next post."Friday may be the single WORST day to send a press release. I'm so swamped with weekend copy, I'm just not going to read them. Wait until Monday."

Again, a commenter empathized with my friend: "Back when I was features editor we had SO MUCH production on Fridays ... every Friday was a 10 or 12 hour day. And all the flaks who hadn't made their call quotas during the week were calling all afternoon trying to make contacts."

Taking Out the Trash
Others called it the best day to release news if you're "taking out the trash." And publicy traded companies that must disclose some news, regardless of whether it's good or bad, follow this approach sometimes. It's also, indirectly, another reason employees are let go on a Friday.

Timing's Everything
If your pitch is poorly timed, it doesn't matter if it's good or bad. It's not going to make news.

This would seem to be more press release 101. But I can't tell you how many times I've gotten email with press releases in them after 5:00 pm on a Friday. Let's be honest, at that point, the PR person wants to cross this item off their task list more than they want to earn coverage for their client.

So plan ahead and consider the schedule of the outlet you're targeting.