Advice for PR and small business on dealing with business reporters

Richard Bammer, a business reporter for the Vacaville Reporter in California, writes Thursday offering advice to public relations professionals and small business owners on how to deal with business journalists.

Here are some of his suggestions:

* Give us lead time. When you e-mail a press release, don’t necessarily expect immediate action. Decisions about the Sunday business story are often made a few weeks in advance. It is especially important to give us advance notice (three weeks is recommended) because of the severe cutbacks here at The Reporter.

* Provide complete information. Know the correct spelling of all the people you mention in your release. When you get ready to write your release, simply ask yourself who, what, when, where, why and how — and get it down on paper (typed and double spaced) or into an e-mail. Essentially, write a brief story, several paragraphs long, a page or two. The release needs to be written in a type size that doesn’t require a magnifying glass.

Read more here.