Get to the Po!nt

Think Twice Before Hitting Send

We talk a lot about the importance of creating a personalized pitch when you want to send a great story idea to bloggers and journalists. Yet if you still think casting a wide, generic net will yield a low, although productive, rate of return, think again. Why? People like Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, have finally had enough and they're taking action.

In a post at The Long Tail blog, Anderson condemns PR professionals who litter his inbox with irrelevant pitches. "Lazy flacks send press releases to the editor in chief of Wired because they can't be bothered to find out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested in what they're pitching," he writes.

Anderson delivers swift retribution by publishing each of their email addresses with a note that they will be blocked irrevocably. This would be embarrassing enough for the chastised—domains in the lengthy list include powerhouse PR firms—but Anderson's decision to out their addresses also raises the chances they'll be harvested by real spammers. In other words, offenders will be subject to the same treatment they've been dishing out. "Turnabout is fair play," reasons Anderson.

The Po!nt: "So fair warning," writes Anderson. "I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I'm interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that." Our best advice: Assume everyone you're pitching feels the same way.