The document provides guidance on how to effectively get press coverage for a startup. It outlines best practices for emailing journalists, including being polite, direct, and succinct. It advises against using embargoes unless for major announcements like funding or acquisitions. The document also discusses dos and don'ts for interviews, following up respectfully, and handling potential mistakes in articles. The overall message is to be concise, respect journalists' time, and build good relationships.

1. How to get press for
your startup
By Tracey Lindeman

2. “Hello Tracey,
My name is [____] and I’d like to know if
you’d be interested in covering my startup.”

3. How to email a journalist
1. Be polite.
Say hi, use the journalist or editor’s first name and use a
simple pleasantry as an icebreaker: “Hi Tracey, I hope you’
re well. My name is [___] and I work at [___].”

4. How to email a journalist
2. Be direct.
Cut to the chase. Say what you want from the writer/editor,
as quickly as possible:
“I’d like to know if you’d be interested in covering my
startup in [name of publication].”

5. How to email a journalist
3. Be interesting — and succinct.
Write two or three lines about your company, starting with
what your main focus/product startup is, followed by any
relevant news item before anything else. So if you’re about
to close a $5M seed round or get acquired, say so up front.
“[Name of startup] makes books for cats. We just raised $5M
in a round led by the New York-based Cat Ventures.”
HOWEVER...

6. This is how I feel about embargoes:

7. How to email a journalist
For those who don’t know what an embargo is:
“In journalism and PR, a press embargo is a request by a
source that the information or news provided by that source
not be published until a certain date or until certain
conditions have been met.” (Wikipedia)

8. How to email a journalist
Why I hate embargoes:
First of all, the information contained in embargoes is
often not worth embargoing.
This may not be what you’d like to hear, but 95% of the
emails I get that contain the word “embargo” are not worth
an embargo. Not everything that happens to your startup
needs a story — let alone an embargoed one.

9. How to email a journalist
Second, it makes my job harder to do.
I am a freelancer; as such, I have anywhere from 2–20
projects happening at the same time. Unfortunately, many
journalists are now freelancers — and those who aren’t are
often busy covering many stories to help make up for fewer
staff members at their publication.
An unnecessary (and unexpected) embargo places undue stress
on an already chaotic schedule.

10. How to email a journalist
Third, we are not your hype machines.
Recently, I’ve noticed startups trying to create hype about
themselves by trying to coordinate press coverage around an
arbitrary date. If you’re using an embargo explicitly to do
this, don’t.
Journalists are too busy to play these games, and they
really, really resent being manipulated and used as free
advertisement/PR.

11. How to email a journalist
Things you do not need to embargo: Opening new funding
round, creating a new venture, office relocation, official
announcements about stuff that is not happening imminently,
staffing changes/new hires/firings unless they are very
important beyond your individual startup, crowdfunding
anything.
Things you can embargo: MONEY. Acquisitions, closing a major
funding round, famous investors, government-related stuff,
major contracts.

12. How to email a journalist
Honestly, just avoid embargoes. Just tell journalists what’s
up and if they think it’s worth a story, they’ll write one.
If you must use one, email journalists the day before a
major announcement to let them know the news.

13. How to email a journalist
Instead of embargoes, consider breaking news with an outlet
by giving them an exclusive scoop. Choose a local media
outlet and an external outlet (e.g. the Gazette and
Techcrunch) to share your big news. If it’s genuinely big
news, its impact will be felt whether 2 or 20 outlets report
on it. In this case, quality over quantity still rings true.
Pick appropriate reporters who cover this space, and ideally
a publication with a sizeable — and diverse — reader base.

14. How to email a journalist
If a journalist says they’ll pass on your story, there’s a
99% chance it’s not personal. It could be that:
● They don’t have the time.
● Their editor said no.
● They don’t think it’s news.
● They’d rather wait to profile your startup.
● They wrote about another similar startup recently.
You can’t force a journalist to cover you on your timeline.
They have their own schedules to respect, as well.

15. How to work with a journalist reporting on you
Next: You’ve emailed a journalist, and they’ve accepted to
write about your business. Good job! But you’re still not at
home plate.

16. How to work with a journalist reporting on you
Articles are more interesting and dynamic if the writer is
able to have a free-flowing conversation with the people
s/he needs to illustrate the story of your startup.
This means: You need to make sure all your people are
available for interviews before you contact a journalist in
the first place.
(Also, having a PR person in the room can be awkward, so try
to avoid it.)

17. How to work with a journalist reporting on you
Location, location, location:
Conference rooms are boring places to have interviews, but
they’ll do if it’s the most convenient option available for
both parties. Meeting in a café or bar is better, though —
it puts you both on neutral ground. And then you also get to
have a tasty beverage you can later claim on your taxes.

18. Interview dos and don’ts
Don’t throw “off the record” into a conversation. For OTR to
actually count, both parties need to agree something is off
the record before it is shared. If you just say it and then
continue speaking, the writer is under no legal obligation
to respect your wishes.
Do speak in as uncensored a manner as possible. Don’t refer
to things “you can’t talk about yet.” If it’s truly
unspeakable, don’t refer to it at all.

19. Interview dos and don’ts
Don’t ask the writer to acknowledge certain people/firms in
their article that you wish to give thanks to for helping
you. Send the intended party a thank-you fruit basket — don’
t try to oblige the journalist to congratulate them for you.
Do develop a base of people outside your direct team that
can speak to press about your startup (investors, clients,
consumers), and offer the journalist access to them. If they
accept, offer to introduce them by email.

20. Interview dos and don’ts
Don’t speak in highly technical terms if you’re not speaking
to a reporter from a highly technical publication. Regular
newspaper readers probably don’t understand and don’t care
about the detailed specs of a high-tech product, and in the
end the reporter is responsible to them.
Do develop a manner of speaking about your business in a
more general way — why your product is needed, what
difference it makes to users, how it’s unique to the market,
what the goal of it is and provide an intermediate
explanation of how it works.

21. After-the-interview dos
You don’t have to do anything after an interview, but if
you’d like to, you can write a simple, “Thanks for speaking
with us today! Let me know if you need anything else.”
You can also inquire about publication date, but keep in
mind the journalist is often not responsible for that part —
that’s the editor’s department. If they don’t have an
immediate answer, be patient.

22. After-the-interview don’ts
Don’t send a gift. A simple thanks is enough. It’s unethical
for journalists to accept gifts, and sending them one anyway
puts them in an awkward position.
Don’t ask to see a draft. Don’t infer you can’t trust
journalists by asking to see the copy “just to make sure you
didn’t make any mistakes.” It’s a really good way to get on
someone’s blacklist. If they’re uncertain about something, a
good journalist will ask follow-up questions while writing
their story.

23. What to do if there’s a mistake in the article
If there is a factual error in the published story, contact
the journalist right away. They will evaluate the error and
contact their editor to change the online story. If it’s a
serious error, the newspaper will likely opt to issue a
correction statement.
However, if you simply don’t like the way the journalist
wrote something, refrain from asking that the article be
changed. You can’t control what other people think or write
about you.

24. What to do if there’s a mistake in the article
That’s not to say you can’t communicate your displeasure
with the journalist. But keep in mind this old saying:
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want
to hear the answers to.”
Which is to say you may not be happy with the answer you get
when complaining about something you think is unfair.

25. What to do if there’s a mistake in the article
If you’re going to complain about a minor detail anyway,
know that the journalist may receive your complaint in one
of two ways:
1. “I’m sorry.”
2. “I’m never writing about you again.”
There are probably some other shades of grey in there (and
sometimes it’s both), but as mentioned, journalists are too
busy to play games. By the time your story is published,
they’ve already moved on to at least one other article.

26. Returning to the same journalist for new news
By all means, if you liked the way a story was written,
reward its writer with additional scoops as your startup
develops and invitations to your events.
If you don’t like the way the story was written, but the
writer is the only person at that publication who covers
startups, it may be wise to smooth over relations. If you’re
the one who created any tension, fess up and apologize. If
you’re not responsible, be brave and write to the journalist
anyway.

27. Returning to the same journalist for new news
If the journalist reacted irrationally to something in the
past, they’ll be apologetic and willing to cover you again.
Know that most journalists are too busy to hold grudges, and
they know they have to cover you — regardless of personal
feelings — if your business is relevant to their beat.
You can try circumventing a particular journalist by writing
to the editor directly for coverage. But know that the
editor may forward it to the journalist you’re avoiding.

28. Returning to the same journalist for new news
In conclusion: Considering a bad relationship with a
journalist is rare, the aforementioned interpersonal
troubleshooting will likely only be useful in a minority of
cases.
It’s only included here because people naturally have wild
imaginations and occasionally obsess about things they
said/shouldn’t have said, and about who likes them and who
doesn’t.

29. Thanks for reading!
If you have any questions, contact me.
Email: tracey.lindeman@gmail.com
Follow me on Twitter: @traceylindeman
(Don’t try to Facebook-message me, though.)
“How to get press for your startup” written by Tracey Lindeman,
March 2016 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada