Pitching Tips for PRs – Ruth Prickett

Yesterday, we posted our Journalist Spotlight on Ruth Prickett, Editor of Financial Management. Today, Ruth offers some practical advice for communications professionals.

Ruth’s Pitching Tips for PRs

Financial Management welcomes suggestions for features that are relevant to its readers and that offer expert or in-depth analysis on suitable topics. Ruth asks PRs to bear in mind that she receives hundreds of emails a day and many of those are irrelevant and therefore not read. Furthermore, she expects PRs to know something about the magazine’s audience and to have thought about what affects them.

The best way to approach Ruth is to send an email with a brief synopsis of the story. She says “If I don’t respond, it really isn’t worth phoning me to ask whether I got the email! Good stories involve innovations or best practice in management accountancy in an interesting or complicated business environment (public or private sector) that could be relevant to readers across national borders. Subjects can be anything from sustainability and business ethics to legal issues, mergers and acquisitions, cross-border currency transactions and so on.”

Ruth reminds PRs that Financial Management is a global magazine. “A story about a small firm in Wiltshire would have to be exceptionally important to get a mention. Global or significant surveys or research projects can be of interest if they come up with something useful for our readers.”

If you suggest an expert who can write for Financial Management, Ruth asks you to ensure that they actually do it. “I have several times commissioned interesting-looking pieces from PRs, only to have them phone up at the eleventh hour to say that their client is too sick/busy/forgetful to produce it. This is hugely annoying and I won’t use the piece in future (or anything else by that client). It’s also important that the expert does actually write it (or at least contribute the main information) – I don’t want a generic piece written by a PR who doesn’t know the subject but has once spoken to the client. I’ll just send it back.”

Not surprisingly, Ruth requests: “Don’t send me press releases addressed to the editor of a rival magazine or with the name of the magazine spelt wrongly. Similarly don’t send me ones with horrendous typos, grammatical errors and/or factual howlers. It doesn’t inspire confidence and will, at best, simply be passed around the office to be mocked. (Honestly, it happens all the time.)”

Ruth does not wish to receive high-res photos. “You may say ‘but it’s only 6mb’ but remember how many emails I get each day. It adds up. Similarly, however, please be aware that it’s useful to have high-res pictures of the key person/place/event in your press release to send us if we request it. It’s irritating when you email for a picture on news press day and find that the PR has phoned the client for a picture, but he’s now on holiday for the next six weeks shooting buffalo.”

“This may sound negative, but noting these points could save everyone loads of time and effort. We really do welcome good stories from efficient PRs who understand who our readers are, can put us in touch with the right people, produce well-written copy on time and respond to queries quickly and intelligently. We will use these people repeatedly, so it’s worth getting it right.”

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