The best time to send out a press release is…

….impossible to define, because different people work to different schedules. End of column. Thanks very much. See you next week.

*** Roxhill intervened here, suggesting I write a trifle more content to earn my fee ***

Ok, well, let’s see if we can find an optimum time.

Fridays, perhaps surprisingly, have their merits — for staff overseeing Saturday travel sections, it’s generally the first day of planning for the subsequent weekend, and thus quite relaxed — but, in general, minds are frazzled and, mentally speaking, already on a weekend off. The consideration of a press release could easily be put off until Monday, which really means it’ll never be read at all.

I’d avoid weekends and Mondays. The former for obvious reasons. Then there’s the fact that non-saddos who don’t work on weekends (unlike me) tend to return to bulging inboxes, to a chunky to-do list, to meetings and the like. Your release could easily get lost amidst all that.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are the most chaotic days for weekend publications, often involving full-on panic and homicidal impulses. Coolly considering the merits of a press release is unlikely to be possible. So let’s swerve them too.

I also suggest steering clear of afternoons — because this is when attention spans tend to waver and must-get-done tasks hold sway — plus the start of mornings, a time when minds aren’t always fully dialled in.

Factor in that some publications commence work at 10am, as well as the typical 9am, and I reckon, therefore, that — drum roll — Tuesday between 11am-12pm is the optimum time to send out a press release!