When You Shouldn't Email A Journalist

Photo by Brooke Cagle

It can happen at 9pm on a Friday night. 12pm on a Sunday. 4pm on a Saturday. What's happening at these leisurely and sociable hours, you might ask? Yoga? Drinking with pals? That might indeed be the case, but what I'm specifically referring to are emails from (some) PRs and founders landing in my inbox. A press release about a new flavour of popcorn. A campaign that's about to launch. Perhaps a guest post pitch. These aren't stories for the national news desks who need solid news trickling through on a weekend. These are emails that can definitely wait until working hours. (They're also mainly irrelevant for me, but that's another newsletter.)

Now, I'm not going to pretend that I haven't done this. I used to send emails at unsociable hours. I didn't have a 'send later' function on my email account, and I'm not sure I still do. With a slew of deadlines, I would work over weekends, contacting PRs and founders, firing over requests for interviews or more information. At the time, I didn't even question my behaviour. I thought it was completely fine. 

But over the past couple of years, I've reined this in. I realised I was feeding into a system we've created where we're 'on' all the time and never stop. Chained to our emails, when one pops up in your inbox you want to respond (or at least read). And that's what my former self and many others are doing: feeding into a workaholic culture when it's completely unnecessary. And so now I prepare and save emails in drafts, ready for the next working day.

I know it feels hypocritical to talk about this when journalists contact businesses at all kind of hours. Although when you're on a news desk, this is what you do. Obviously if you're already engaged in a dialogue with a journalist, fire your email off to them. Or set your own boundaries early with them. But for anyone sending out enquiries on a Saturday or a pitching a freelance journalist at 10pm, maybe think twice before you press send.

Have a lovely rest of the week.

Susie