A curious development in flak-land, one I don’t think is going to work.
We are used to emails that say: “If you’re writing about Panda Bears, my client can offer expert insight and quotes….”
Sometimes we are. The flak gets lucky and the client gets his name in the paper.
Lately, flaks are trying this approach: “I see you have written about Panda Bears, can you add a quote from my client to the online version of the story?”
Most of the efforts like this I’ve seen are clunky, transparent attempts to shove in something that’s “pluggy” rather than newsy.
I should warn that some colleagues find the whole approach annoying. We’ve finished the Panda Bear story, right?
I think it could work, but you’ve got to work quite hard to make what you are offering value-added. It’s got to be better than what we’ve already filed for there to be any chance of us going to the trouble to make an edit.
Or it’s got to tell us something we didn’t know rather than be a desperate plea for a name check.
