PRs urged: Send us your giant emails – plain text journalism is dead
PR professionals are being urged to rethink press release etiquette and start including rich media with their emails to journalists.
The call comes from Renai LeMay, news editor of technology site ZDNet.
In an email to all of his contacts today, LeMay said:
It appears there is a bit of confusion out there about whether PR and communications professionals can send rich media such as images, audio and video to journalists when distributing press releases and other statements.
Some PRs have told me they’re afraid to send such rich media to journalists, because they complain that their inboxes fill up. Some PRs tell me that they’re not sure how publications can handle images, sound and video on their sites, and so they don’t send them at all.
So I thought I would send a mass email to the PRs I deal with, to let you know how we feel at ZDNet.com.au.
In short, we feel that the age of plain text journalism is dead.
In our Sydney offices at CBS Interactive, all of our journalists have Adobe Photoshop installed on their computers, as well as audio editing software. They are issued with high-end digital SLR cameras when attending press conferences.
In addition, we employ several full-time video editing staff that work across various sites, and we have broadcast quality cameras, sound equipment etc, dedicated video editing PCs and even a green screen.
Our journalists are expected to file each and every story with an image attached. And we are making increasing use of audio and video in our publishing work.
So please, if you are thinking of sending us high-resolution images, audio or video of any kind, please do so. If we publish a story on a statement you issue, there is a very high likelihood we will include rich media. We prefer images to be as high quality as possible. (For images, this means we prefer magazine-quality: 300DPI, in as large a size as possible. We can accept any format: JPG, TIFF, PSD, etc. Often 72DPI is fine as long as it is good quality and a large picture.)
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Over at The Music Blogs – we’re still actually preferring plain text emails from our PR people with the images attached. Software such as WordPress makes it easy to forward these tagged for a quick upload. Images of course are welcomes and appreciated, just as separate attachments.
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There’s an important distinction here, though, and it’s one that the headline and article don’t quite cover. Yes, send through images/video/music if you must (although I’d argue it’s better form to send links rather than full images, but I’m willing to differ with Renai on that one) but plain text is better for actual details. I’m often very frustrated (and I’m sure I’m not alone) by invites and product details slapped onto embedded image files that require re-typing into calendars/articles/etc. They’re also not indexed by operating systems or mail clients, so if I’m searching for it at a later date, it can’t be found.
Yes, it might look prettier, but it’s far less functional for the end user. Plain text doesn’t want to go on the cart just yet…
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@Jye: Yup, plain text emails with rich media as attachments is the go. It’s hard to extract usable media from those nasty HTML emails!
@Alex Kidman: Yes, links also work. I don’t think anyone here is arguing for embedded images (*yuck*). I’m talking about media we can use.
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Agree with the other fellows
Holy grail :
1. Plain text email with useful info
2. links to high res photos rather than full image attachments
3. Lots of product details + Event invites in plain text. an empty email with no text and all the event invite info in a JPEG is not searchable or copyable to a calendar entry
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I agree with Neerav. An easily searchable text email with links (attachments are OK, but come a definite second best in my opinion) to appropriate media makes life much easier. Everyone is happier and more productive!
Embedded invitations are a pain, pure and simple – and what if the embedded image doesn’t send properly, as I saw last week? All I had was a single line of introductory text with a blank space where an invitation should have been.
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It’s great to know what Renai and the ZDNet folk want to receive, but I posed the question about embedded media versus plain text press releases to my Twitter followers last week and had 7 journalists, editors and bloggers from different publications all reply saying “plain text with links preferred.” Not one of them wanted embedded material from PRs.
I’d say, as with any press release, you need to tailor your pitch and your presentation of multimedia according to the preferences of the individuals you deal with.
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OK, let me make something clear here. At no point did I ask or imply that I like “embedded” HTML-type emails!
Attachments that we can use in our publishing environment, please!
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@Renai
After reading your comment I thought perhaps the intro of the story was misrepresenting your position, but in the tail end of your own email you said “So please, if you are thinking of sending us high-resolution images, audio or video of any kind, please do so”. That’s pretty unclear if what you want are links to multimedia content!
Cheers,
Sarah
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Methinks there’s some confusion all-round as to what constitutes ’embedded’ media and ‘attached’ media. Part of what’s fueling the discussion, no doubt!
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@Renai Ah, with you now. Attachments ok, embedded media in email bad.
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‘Plain text journalism is dead’…
Is this the same Renai LeMay, sorry Sir Lancelot, who was defending journalism’s honour in this very column back in June?
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Sure is MDJY 🙂
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serious question and unrelated to mumbrella but I am sure someone can answer – how much journalism around the world of digital (ie media/startup) is rehashed press releases or ripped from the US sites like TC, mashable and paidcontent?
70-80%? 90%? Everything? http://www.digital-media.net.au/ to me looks like 1 big aggregator of other peoples content and press releases.
Seems like there’s big reliance on PR agencies to produce content.
hey Ben,
it really depends on the site and the editor running it; it varies heavily between sites. Some people focus heavily on local journalism, especially scoops and investigative journalism, and others don’t.
I personally believe readers are pretty intelligent these days and quickly work out where things are sourced from.
Renai
News Editor
ZDNet.com.au
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I see no news value in this and, to be honest, I don’t even see it as genuine outreach to PRs. I see it as a chest-beating excercise. Basically a chance for ZDNet to say, “Look at us, we’re so cutting edge and made of awesome we’ll go against the grain of what every other journo in the country is saying and ask for mindlessly rich content, just so we can point out what kind of kit we work with on our desktops!” Get me a bucket.
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Over at Anthill Magazine, we made a similar case to PR professionals a few weeks back, under the provocative title: Why PRs are the last to ‘get’ the internet.
http://anthillonline.com/why-p.....-internet/
Thank you mUmbrella for posting on your site (you are indeed a traffic magnet).
The post was a bit unfair but hopefully got people thinking… Why send me a boring press release when you can send me an awesome video?
I know what our readers would prefer.
James
Editor-In-Chief
Anthill
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I still have journos asking me NOT to send images, or any attachments, just the info in plain text please…
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Definitely plain text email, with links to hi-res images. Stick to that old IT adage – Keep It Simple, Stupid!
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@The Phantom: Maybe if there were more chat about what PR peeps should be doing in terms of pitching correctly, the result would be better on both sides. Who are you to call the kettle black, anyway? @Renai: it was an interesting article and these things are newsworthy within the media & PR industry. Thanks for putting your opinion out there.
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Not much use for rich media here at Dynamic Business. Every media outlet is different, that’s the main thing. Get to know what each publication wants. Simple as.
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Zigactly.
Perhaps amending the article title to the infinitely more accurate: “PRs urged: Send us your giant emails – plain text journalism is dead (according to ZDNet)” would be the best step…
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Links to hi-res images are always preferred to attachments. Actually a well maintained image library is preferable to anything for my money.
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Jen from Dynamic Business has hit the nail on the head…
Pitch to the medium.
You wouldn’t sell a sound bite to television.
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Plain text email with links to images or if that’s not possible, send the images in low res and indicate that if of interest, higher resolution is available.
There is nothing worse than someone clogging your inbox with images.
Anyone who has a Blackberry and has been on the road and unable to send out because someone sent you an email with massive attachments will know why I say this. Your inbox gets full and your Blackberry is cactus til you can get to your computer to clear it.
It is infuriating. For the love of God, please do not encourage people to send bigger emails!
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@Sarah Who am I to call it? Well, for starters, I’ve never hidden a, “We’re so awesome!” message in a pseudo outreach to PRs. If I’ve wanted to talk up a pub, I’ve simply talked it up. I find hiding the message within a message to be kinda weird.
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And, additional, the number of journo’s now noticing this thread and saying that plain text is preferred only goes to strengthen what I said earlier, anyway.
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@The Phantom
Nobody’s ever accused me of having a small ego mate 😉
However I should point out that I’ve received quite a few emails from my contacts today thanking me for the email, and noting the information will help in their future dealings with ZDNet.com.au. In this sense my PR outreach effort worked!
I’m glad there are strong opinions on both sides in this discussion! As Jen Bishop correctly points out, your PR approach should differ depending on what outlet you are pitching.
I also want to note that linking to hi-res images is also a great solution to this problem, as many commenters have noted.
Cheers,
Renai
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@phantom: Yes, but the thread of comments also shows that it’s a topic worth discussing and of relevance to the media industry.. and so, has news value. If you put a piece on Mumbrella you usually get critiqued – but at least it’s an interesting debate!
Peace out.
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God NO. I get the majority of email on my Blackberry and it is infuriating getting stuff I can’t read properly. Including unfortunately the Mumbrella mailout.
If you must attach a Word doc or pdf, at least paste the text in the body of the email.
Or how about mailing your contact list for their preferences, and putting out two different versions each time? Contacts that don’t respond can be assigned whichever you like.
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Just want to clear up again, I am NOT arguing for complicated HTML emails with embedded media. Icky.
What I am arguing for is for PRs to think beyond text when they send out media releases or statements. Send CDs with video, audio and images, for example. Or host such files on your site and provide download access to journos.
I’m arguing this because I’ve lost count of the times I have emailed PRs asking for a headshot photo of an executive quoted in a media release.
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With the development of online collaboration tools such as Adobe Share, there is no excuse for not compiling professional PR documents that include images, text and richmedia components, that can be made easily available via a linked reference. Email is the bain of the digital information sharing – clogging up networks with unecessary rich media attachments is a headache for information administrators and overtly costly for all involved.
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Good PRs should know what their journos prefer. I mostly send low-res attachments of images to avoid the clog-up and paste the release into the email. Interested parties will quickly ask for hi-res as I make it clear those are available (or use a link if possible). Low-res are fine for websites and calendar listings of course and then you can tailor images size-wise for press.
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If you squint, tilt your head and read Renai’s article backwards from bottom to top, you can see that every fourth letter actually spells out the message “Send us your whopping attachments and embedded media”. A little later the text reads “I buried Paul”. And is it just coincidence that Renai is the only one of the ZDNet editorial staff to walk barefoot around the office? We think not!!
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It’s all about the audience. PRs need to know what their media contacts prefer, and customise accordingly. Oh dear, you say, that’s too much extra work! Well dudes that’s what you’re paid to know. It’s about outcomes, not outputs, or did you skip my class that day.Some will want plain text wth links tohigh res audio or video. I doubt many will want media embedded.
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Great, reading through all the responses I think I’ve finally “got it”
You guys prefer –
A personalised text email with links back to a html page with links to hi and low res images, sound bites, video and rich media.
You can then craft and weave your magic for your audience.
Now to implement….
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I doubt whether many country publications and radio stations would enjoy receiving large attachments. Better to send a simple link to a multi-media rich web site and let the receiver decide what to use. AS an aside, when I was working on the Gold Coast three years ago, ALL media wanted their releases by fax. Strange but true. It may have changed. However, the thinking was they received so many emails, that anyone serious about PR would go to the trouble of faxing. I couldn’t understand that logic, though, as you can fax from a computer. @prlab
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@”Dr John Harrison” Trust an academic, or someone impersonating an academic, to come up with an answer like that. If you would actually get out and work in the real world, and see the size of the average media distribution list, then factor in how precious some journalists can be when it comes to how they receive press releases and related material, sometimes for no other reason than, “Because they can…”, it eventually becomes a waste of a client’s money to have a staff member sitting there, tailoring releases to the nth degree. Now, that doesn’t mean ‘shotgunning’ the same release to everyone is the way to go. But the PR still holds the reins here and if ‘journalist x’ doesn’t like a release because the font was wrong, or the subject line wasn’t to their satisfaction… tough. There’s plenty of media outlets that will run stories. Overly pandering to some — ironically enough, who are sometimes at the bottom of the tree in terms of real value anyway — is just a waste of time.
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Hello Batman. Always check the facts before shooting from the hip. I worked professionally in PR for twenty years.
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I think the headline was also missing a disclaimer:
PRs urged: Send us your giant emails – plain text journalism is dead (unless it’s an exclusive for Renai)
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Just out of curiosity…
When a client tells you to send out a press release, and then is unavailable for an interview for three weeks, do they actually tell you they’re about to disappear before you send the release out, or do they think they’re so fascinating we’ll still remember them by the time they come back?
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When I’m wearing my editor hat, I’d say anything that makes it easy for us to do our job is great. I work in print, so high-resolution images are essential. One of my biggest frustrations is dealing with vendors/PRs who don’t understand what “high-resolution” means.
However, I’m also the IT administrator in our office, so I would also say please please please DO NOT send enormous attachments – PDFs, PowerPoints and yes, high-resolution images – with your media releases. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
There’s a middle ground, of course, which has already been suggested: host the enormous files somewhere and give us links to them if we need them. I know this requires some work, but it makes for happy journos. And everyone wants that!
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@”Dr John Harrison” What a neat way to avoid talking to the points I made… you just ingored them. LOL. I guess that’s 20 years of PR paying off right there.
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Wow, looks like I stoked some controvery! 🙂
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We always provide media releases as plain text with an offer to provide other files on request.
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Great discussion here. Thanks for provoking this, Renai, it’s very valuable!
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Dr John, well said about making a little effort to match journos’ needs. One of my best journos has only dial-up access but huge reach to my audience. Do I give her special treatment? You bet!
Those who remember B&W prints and colour trannies know that a single technology is rarely enough. Some journos with special needs happen to be worth the effort … and it’s not that much extra work.
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We use a dedicated online application that we’ve customised to each client. Each email contains a basic header and footer, thumbnail links direct to high-res, a link to previous releases, etc. We can send as multi-format, so HTML capable journos receive a nicely laid-out page and the ones that can only manage text simply receive the bare bones plus links through to high-res. It works well.
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Dr John, well said about making a little effort to match journos’ needs. One of my best journos has only dial-up access but huge reach to my audience. Do I give her special treatment? You bet!
Those who remember B&W prints and colour trannies know that a single technology is rarely enough. Some journos with special needs happen to be worth the effort … and it’s not that much extra work.x1010
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There’s a middle ground, of course, which has already been suggested: host the enormous files somewhere and give us links to them if we need them. I know this requires some work, but it makes for happy journos. And everyone wants that!
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However, I’m also the IT administrator in our office, so I would also say please please please DO NOT send enormous attachments – PDFs, PowerPoints and yes, high-resolution images – with your media releases. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
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It’s great to know what Renai and the ZDNet folk want to receive, but I posed the question about embedded media versus plain text press releases to my Twitter followers last week and had 7 journalists, editors and bloggers from different publications all reply saying “plain text with links preferred.” Not one of them wanted embedded material from PRs.
I’d say, as with any press release, you need to tailor your pitch and your presentation of multimedia according to the preferences of the individuals you deal with.
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How about actually asking the journo if they even want to be sent any material? And, if so, in what format. Yes it takes more time but has a significantly higher success rate and a lot less pissed off, quite rightly, journos.
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