How do you prefer to be contacted by PRs?

“I prefer to be contacted by email. If the deadline is close and the story is a very good one, then maybe phone, but often when we’re close to deadline we don’t have much time to spend on the phone, so generally email is best.”

How long should a PR wait before chasing up a press release?

“Often we get so many emails that we just don’t have a chance to reply to every email so there have been times it has been useful to have them flagged up in my inbox. However, generally I do get to glance at all our emails so if it’s something that you’ve emailed us and we haven’t got back in touch with you then it’s probably not one for us.”

Do you expect PRs to ask about deadlines?

“Something I get quite surprised about is how many PRs don’t know when the deadlines are, certainly for the Standard where, coming out in the afternoon, we have quite an unusual deadline.”

What PR habit do you find most irritating?

“At the Standard we get phone calls for stories right on deadline and there comes a point where we’ve got our heads down and are concentrating on getting the paper out, so we don’t have time to chat. Second, we get a lot of stuff that gets sent out at the same time to all the other nationals and it’s not worth us looking at because if it was already in the morning papers then it’s generally not going to be one for us.”

What is the most useful service that PRs can provide?

“The most important service that PRs can provide is access to the people that we want to talk to.”