Hey Hedda ... good points. I would add, just as a general comment, that I very frequently have people ask me if they can "see" a story before we publish it. The answer is almost always no. It would simply be unethical to do it any other way. If there is a question regarding facts or verbiage in a story, a good reporter should call to clarify.

The second point is that the real problem is the RBI email system fills up very easily when people send large attachments. But I am not sure other publications have that problem, and I'm curious if this is an issue with other books or just us.

If you send me an email that's more than 10MB, it will bounce back. I have to say that I actually like getting product photography by email. A high-res jpeg doesn't have to be more than a few MB to be usable. But in my experience, almost no one includes a full product description with the image, which would be very helpful. My pet peeve is PR agencies that only include their own contact information and not the contact information of the company they are promoting. Actually, I am doing a break-out session on Working with the Press at Women in the Know Midwest in Chicago on October 24. I'll be sure to pass on your likes and dislikes!

Hedda, I regularly get "bombed" with huge attachments, frequently exceeding 10MB, and it drives me crazy too. Fortunately we have a robust email server can handle it, but there's no question it's bad PR etiquette to send such things unsolicited. Two additional pieces of advice I haven't seen mentioned: 1) KNOW YOUR LISTS. Don't clog my inbox with with releases about lingerie and shoes when I edit a jewelry magazine. This just makes me less inclined to take you seriously when you do send something I can use. 2) DON'T CALL ME. On most days, I am too busy to take these kinds of calls. But, I *do* read all my e-mail, and rest assured if it's something relevant, I will respond. Information that isn't relevant by email isn't going to be any more relevant over the phone, and calling me about it is just going to annoy me.

Hedda, re press releases - good points indeed . I've learned it all the hard way, just by writing them and not giving up. As someone who works on both sides of the trenches, we like to think we know what editors need, like and dislike. Always have a few others/colleagues read your draft release, get their input, it will always improve the quality of the final version of the release

re Blackberry - and any other pda's like it - you can set your email to come without the attachments - and select what attachments u want to download. And do scream at RBI's ICT technicians for not doing their job - i.e. limiting the size of an attachment. Get them to set up an easy access ftp or otherwise just ask people to use "

Hedda, I just wanted to thank you for all of your useful PR posts. I am a PR intern, fresh out of college and still learning alot. Your advice has helped a great deal and is truly appreciated!

Hey, thanks, all, for responding!
To Rob: Excellent point you make!
Cheryl: I knew you felt my pain. And right you are about PR agencies not providing company contacts. Soooo annoying!
"Another editor": Great advice! I don't like being pitched by phone, or worse, being hounded for followup by phone.
Ya'akov: Right you are about an FTP server! We have one, but nobody ever bothers to ask if we have one and if I'd prefer they use it--they just bombard my inbox with huge attachments. Especially, I might add, the day after an awards show. Hello, all the PR people who've sent an avalanche of celebrities-wearing-jewelry images this morning after the Emmys...
Randi: You're welcome, and best of luck!

It's amazing to me that editors think they are kings & queens of the world and that pr people are worthless people sending them useless information, hounding them with phone calls, clogging their emails and simply wasting their precious time. They never seem to be thankful to the hard working people who give them content for their pages, scramble to pull in product at the last minute for photo shoots and put together the parties where they are wined, dined and gifted.
The reason that the pr company is listed and NOT the designer's is that the designer doesn't want you calling them, which is why they have an agency. If you want a quote or to pull a product, go through the agency! That is what they are being paid for.
Lastly, the comment about the agencies sending celeb images after the Emmy Awards is just plain rude. If we didn't send these to you, who would, the celebrities?

I need company contact information because I include it in the product caption. This is to make it easier for retailers who are interested in the product to contact the designer to buy it. I assume that's why PR mavens are seeking the publicity?

To PR maven: I didn't say we don't want celebrity images; I just don't want to be bombarded with email after email of huge photo attachments. Remember, you're not the only person sending them--every PR agency with a jewelry-wearing client is sending them, so it's easy to end up with 30 mb of images in a mailbox at once. All we're asking as editors is please to put the images on a CD and send them by snail mail, put them on an FTP site that we can access what we need, or just shoot a quick beam to us first to see if we're even in the office and logged on so that we can move the files out of our inbox before it crashes. I don't think that's asking too much. As I said in my first post, the key is "unsolicited" large images; not "any" large images.
As for the client not wanting to be contacted by an editor, sorry, I agree with Cheryl. Our mission is to make it easier for the readers to find the products they are interested in possibly purchasing. If the designers don't want to be contacted directly, why are they even bothering to pitch us?

PR Maven, with all due respect,your job involves dealing with the press. So it should help you to understand what it's like on the other side. That is what Hedda is trying to do with this post. I find the best PR people are the ones who try to work with the editors, try to understand how they want to be contacted and what their general preferences are. If you are p--ing off the editor of a trade mag by sending 30mb attachments that crash her email, you really aren't doing your job, are you? I've been doing this awhile, and I know plenty of excellent PR people; but some are kind of clueless and just seem to waste their and their client's time and money. And, speaking just for myself, it can be a little irritating when someone tells you to "call the PR person" before even a one-sentence query. It just seems to add an extra bureaucratic layer. I once had to do a very brief interview with an executive of an organization, that will remain nameless. It was all kind of fluffy and could have been handled in two seconds. But instead of me just calling this person, and getting a call back, I had to call the organization's PR person, who then had to call my contact, who had to schedule with me, etc. And round and round it went, for a needless two days. Yes, that is "what you are getting paid for," but if it's something that most people could handle by themselves (returning a phone call) that is not really a value-adding layer of the chain, now, is it?