To phone or not to phone - that is the question

From time to time PR blogs complain about journalists who complain about PRs phoning them to see if they received the e-mail that did not bounce back.

It makes good blog copy - comments abound after such entries.

It also brings up the question of following up. Generally if a journalist has received your e-mail they have made a decision on whether your release or offer is worth pursuing and they get back to you or use without correspondence.

So far, so good.

However, I have been following up today on 2 articles I have propositioned last week for a client.

The response initially was not so good although the proposition I believed was. It could be that many journalists are still on holiday and combined with deadlines looming I did not get the overwhelming flood of interest I expected. It could be my e-mail could have been better written.

I followed up and have had some expressions of interest, including a one page feature agreed and one highly likely. If I get one more then it will be a very good use of my time.

What strikes me is that some journalists do not read their e-mails or do not have time to read their in boxes thoroughly.

There is a delicate balance. However, sometimes it does seem wider than that; there is a difference between attracting attention to something that can be of some value that might have been missed and simply haranguing and pressuring a journalist.