“What are you working on?”

There tends to follow a summary of the client or a client list, usually with some USPs or the latest news (on which prior press releases have already focused) and maybe details of photo galleries. And that’s it.

Hmm. If you don’t ask, you don’t get, of course. All the same, approaches like this always feel lazy. Essentially they seem to be asking “can we have some coverage, please, while doing barely anything for it?” Unfair, perhaps, but that’s how they read to me.

They also have pretty much a zero success rate, at least in my case. If I am writing a round-up, I’ll issue an alert via that other travel-media service (which we shan’t name) or, when short on time, simply ask PRs whom I know a) has applicable clients and b) can always be relied upon for a prompt response. Ditto with features, late deals or anything else, really.

It’s time to stop sending these lazy emails. Instead, spend the time sending us journalists some proper news, or researching pitch ideas. Rather than asking whether I’m working on anything, why not try to give me something to work on?