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Tanya Janca
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A media contact list should include the names, phone numbers and email addresses (mandatory!) of all the arts
journalists in your city. To find these people, Web access is ideal. One Web site that I would recommend is
http://www.synapse.net/radio/brodcast.htm. Search each Web site for the arts journalist of the media outlet.
Another great way to meet journalists is the network. Attend events where you know journalists will be in
attendance. Talk to them. Get their cards. Add them to your list. Don't be afraid to promote yourself. Your
music is important.
Gather all of the information you can and make a list. An email list, using an email client like Netscape or Outlook are good. If you create a list you can send that list press releases etc. Or can also mail them press kits that you want to to listen to, read, etc. Add to this list as often as you can! Another good way to find press contacts is through doing a web search. Use a popular search engine, I suggest www.google.com, and type in the name of the city you want information for and phrases that will get you results. Here are a few examples, you will need to try a few, and it will take a couple hours, so put aside an evening or afternoon. "Ottawa newspaper contact" "Toronto non-commerial radio stations contact" The word "contact" is very important, it will probably bring you right to that company's contact section of their webpage. Be as specific as you can and name the country if you have to. Other good searches include "contact montreal tv station entertainment music" etc. Try to think of what and who you are looking for, be creative! If you're lucky someone might have made up a list for that city already and posted it on the net for you to find! One more word of advice, when doing a mass email (an email addressed to several people). Put the addresses of all of the people in the field marked "BCC:", NOT the "To:" field. Send the email "To:" yourself. This way, none of the people on your list will be able to see each other's email addresses, this irritates many people. We don't want to tick people off, we want to make them adore us and write about us! One last thing, for now: Make sure you have a professional sounding email address. If you are trying to promote a professional event, act like a pro! Don't have an email address like "I_like_cats@hotmail.com" unless you're promoting a cat show. NEVER have profanity in your email address name or anything else that could be considered derogatory. Something using your name, your band's name, or your organization's or group's name is a great way to make sure they know who the email is from. I have known more than one person who sent someone an email and got quite a sour reply and did not understand why at first... |