More and more journalists are considering press release emails spam.

At least that’s what one reporter - Josh Bernoff of Forrester’s Groundswell - feels about his own recent emails.

In his recent blog post, he names three PR ‘firms’ that have sent him emails in the past few days. He’s upset, and rightly so, since these three release have not targeted him. The sender simply sent an email out to as many journalists as possible.

I discussed a bit about targeting last month, but it seems some haven’t heeded my warning.

So let’s get a bit deeper.

Reporters want your news, if it’s what they are already covering. Blasting emails to everyone on your list doesn’t work. And could get you publicly humiliated.

How do you find the journalists who want your information? That takes work - and you must be willing to put in the work (or hire a good public relations person) to do it for you. Here are the basics:

1. Monitor the news outlets you would like to target
2. Find reporters who are covering your beat consistently
3. Reach out to those journalist via PHONE first. Find out if they truly are the ideal person for your pitch.
4. Find out how they would like to receive your news. Then deliver good releases!

Image credit: chotda, on Flickr

Jason Falls is a great new media public relations person. And recently, I read his blog post “Is The Future of Advertising Public Relations?”

Jason makes some great points about the future influence of bloggers on the media landscape, but right at the beginning I squirmed:

(I say new-fashioned because old-fashioned is sending blast emails to hundreds of media outlets or bloggers and calling it a day. New-fashioned is reaching out personally to individuals to build a relationship and working with them to meet their needs and yours in symbiotic fashion.)

Ummm… I didn’t know that the new-fashioned wasn’t always the case, Jason.

Good PR people reach out to journalists and try to build relationships with them.

I was a TV anchor and reporter, so I know what crap can be sent to people blindly, now known as spamming. It was those PR folks who reached out and gave me stories I could use, whether it benefited them or not.

The goal of a good public relations practitioner isn’t getting the big ‘media placement’. The goal is to figure out how I can build a relationship with media folks, one that benefits both of us, and maybe down the road, between that person and my client.

A good PR person has the tools necessary to build relationships, not just spam people.

Image credit: datingammo_king, on Flickr