Posted on September 25, 2006
Distributing News by Feed: Simpler, not Lazier
BY JASON CORMIER
On Sept. 19, I wrote this posting for the Poynter Institute's group weblog E-Media Tidbits (which is read mainly by mainstream media pros) that caused a little stir in the PR field.
See, part of what I do is journalism, so consequently a lot of PR folks unthinkingly add me to their press release e-mail lists. I really, really don't like that. In fact, I routinely flag any unsolicited press release as spam. I strongly prefer to get news by feed, and I subscribe to lots of feeds on the beats I cover.
It's not that I'm closed to new sources. In fact, PR reps for prospective sources can always e-mail me to request permission to send me releases. If I think they're relevant enough, I'll first ask for their feed URL. If they don't offer a feed, then I'll let them send me e-mail only if I think their content truly is on-topic for me.
Not surprisingly, several PR pros were alarmed that I'd flag their precious releases as spam. Tough! It's my inbox, and have no trouble finding good leads from diverse sources.
On Saturday, PR blogger Barbara Iverson picked up on my theme and encouraged PR pros to offer feeds. I appreciate her support in that community.
In the comments to her post, I asked Iverson whether she thinks most PR folks know how to set up a feed, or know enough to ask their tech people to set it up for them. From her reply, I gather that most PR pros probably don't even know what feeds are, let alone how to set them up.
Then she responded with a good question of her own: "Do you think most reporters know about feeds or how to ask for them?"
Here's what I told her, plus more reasons why organizations should publish their news via feed...
