Do you believe you were on Anderson’s list in error?
No.
If you did pitch him, did you do so directly or do you assume it was through a list?
Through a list.
Have you had any e-mails from people since the list has been published?
Some of my colleagues have been poking fun at me.
What do you think of his tactic of publishing your e-mail. Do you think it was fair?
I think it was fair because it was on HIS blog, he can write whatever he wants to because it’s his domain, same if he wrote something in Wired. I think putting all the e-mails was slightly a low blow but again, he can do what he wants.
Is there a good reason to be directly pitching an editor in chief when there are other editors more receptive to the message?
There are times when pitching an editor in chief is acceptable, especially if it’s a small publication. Clearly Wired isn’t a small publication but there are a lot of reporters that have general beats within the magazine and when the editors descriptions in Vocus, Bacons, or any other media service are lacking, the next best option is to e-mail the editor in chief hoping that s/he can forward the e-mail to the appropriate editor or reporter.
Do you think Chris Anderson is representing the frustration of other journalists?
Yes, I believe there are many journalists/producers that are frustrated with the amount of e-mails coming their way. I’d go nuts if I had to fish through 300+ e-mails a day to find the ones that are relevant to me but it’s part of the business. It’s like celebrities complaining about paparazzi: this is what you signed up for, so work to live with it – PR people get e-mails from vendors and other media services all the time...
What is frustrating to you in today’s interaction with journalists?
Some journalists think all PR people are the same – we’re not all flacks, we’re not all snake oil salesmen, often times we do have a product or issue that may be important to readers of a certain publication. We’re all doing our respective jobs, please respect us for that.
Feel free to add any other commentary.
Reporters/editors should fully utilize Bacons, Vocus, etc… by providing in-depth and bios. Even when PR people do research on a reporter – going one or two months back to see what the reporter has written – a lot of them have go from beat to beat which makes pinpointing a specific beat hard to do…