December Issue

And so the Christmas press releases start slowing down a little, to be replaced by the inevitable January topics.

(Although top marks to the PR who sent me a speculative “last-minute chefs’ tips” message just now because I was pulling one together at that moment!)

So it’s goodbye to personalised artisan gin bottles and hello vitamin-infused alcohol-free kombucha drinks (I paraphrase…)

I understand that for PRs who work with health-related food and drink products and destinations, the start of a new year is peak season, but I’m working on ideas a bit more evolved than the usual veganuary and Dry January.

This isn’t a hand-wringing plea for press officers and publicists to do my job for me and come up with fully formed features ideas around eating and drinking more healthily, but there’s definitely potential for collaboration and working up themes together. And that’s partly about taking time to know enough about a publication’s audience too – Pit magazine readers don’t have the same habits as Daily Telegraph readers, I reckon.

It comes back to that chefs’ tips email… I couldn’t quite use what was sent, although it was very much in the ballpark: my thought was not about using new recipes but about making little tweaks for food already ordered or bought. She got it immediately and went back to her clients for on-the-nose comment. 

Happy her, happy me, happy readers.