Kibbe on Marketing: Be Soft on Hard Copy Pitches

In this day and age of communication – and business – at the speed of light, you’d be surprised any marketer would still send pitches and releases in paper form, but it still occurs, and more often than one would think.

I would receive about half a dozen press releases or other forms of hard copy in the mail each week. Now that might not sound like a lot, but I was probably just one of dozens or even potentially hundreds of media folk that received such notices.

It rarely, if ever, worked for me and I’ll tell you why.

All publications are produced electronically these days. Stories are sent to editors through the email, picture files are uploaded – shoot, even the files of the print-ready paper are sent electronically to the printer.

If I receive a release or a pitch by snail mail, is there really an expectation that I’d TYPE IN the copy? Really?

Granted, often pitches are just that – something to be used as a springboard for larger coverage. Even so, when I am pulling my reporter’s notes and questions together, I'd keep all the source material in one place. If I have this paper thing hanging around, I’d have to constantly refer to it instead of having the source info right at my finger tips.

There is a place for some hard copy. Occasionally, shiny, happy snail mailed-announcements for events can be nice, but, there, too, I’d prefer electronic. I love clothes catalogs and hard copy shelter mags. 

If there's some situation where I needed hard copy, I'd request it. But given a choice, electronic is the way to go.

But for pitches, don’t throw us journalists a curve ball – email us.

Cindy Kibbe, an editor for a New England business publication for nearly a decade, can be reached at cindykibbe@comcast.net.