When to make your approach

There is no exact science to this, only common sense. Just avoid Monday mornings – editors arrive to lots of emails – and that dead time known as Friday afternoon. 

Although anything in-between is fine, Tuesday mid-morning might be the best time of all: most inboxes will be calm, and no-one yet has the sense of the week’s time running out.

Most weekly travel sections produce their content about a week ahead, and often plan a month or two ahead. The same applies to radio shows and TV channels. So time-sensitive ideas based around an anniversary, film release or seasonality – i.e. outdoor pursuits – should be sent 3-6 months in advance of the relevant time for the best odds of success. 

Monthly magazines’ travel sections are written 3-6 months ahead of publication, with issues also coming out a few days ahead of their stated month (e.g. a September issue published on August 29). So allow for even more advance notice if contacting a monthly magazine.

Sent a personal pitch to an editor or producer? You’re perfectly entitled to follow it up should no response be received. You can couch this by citing a desire to make sure they received the email, or just be honest: say that you want to give them first dibs, but otherwise will – quite reasonably – take the idea elsewhere. 

Whether to follow up an impersonal press release is more questionable. As before, it might well be that the editor has seen your release, not been smitten and deleted it; but you have less right to a reply if it wasn’t sent personally. Chase, and you risk only causing long-term annoyance. But that is more concerning for a PR professional: if such media contact is rare for you, then it’s probably worth the risk.

Wait a week before chasing, unless you’ve reason for extra haste. Chase by email (never phone) with courtesy and not even a whiff of an accusatory tone. Reply to your initial email, and say something breezy like “I know you get 75,633 emails a day, but your readership fits our product so darn well that I’m following up to maximise my chances. Here’s my idea again…”  

You can also monitor if your release has been used online, by using a tool such as Google Alerts.