The CBS Interactive team swung by Octopus comms HQ yesterday afternoon for a Q&A session about how top tech PR agencies can work better with their publications. The CBS Interactive roster includes the likes of Silicon.com, ZDnet.co.uk and CNET.co.uk, so with all these publications being relevant to a host of Octopus clients, there was plenty to discuss…

This provided a great opportunity to learn first-hand what makes these publications tick and Tony Hallett, the group publisher, gave his top three tips for PRs looking to pitch to CBS Interactive publications:

1.       Pitching on a Friday afternoon is ok!

Tony explained how readers still consume content on weekends! There seems to be an urban myth in place at some PR agencies that you should avoid pitching on Friday afternoons but there is a growing trend amongst online publications to push out news beyond the traditional Monday-Friday, 9-5 timescale. PRs shouldn't be afraid to pick up the phone at 4pm on Friday afternoon as this is the time journalists will be looking for weekend story leads and comment.

2.       Get to know their beats:

Every PR has been there before - you spend five minutes pitching a story to the journalist, only for them to say "I'll pass it onto my colleague who covers that area." Save yourself the time (and embarrassment) by spending a few minutes checking up on the kind of areas they are writing about. It will get the pitch off to a good start if you are talking to the correct journalist!

3.       Show passion for the clients you are representing:

Your enthusiasm will really come across when speaking to the journalist on the phone. Journalists receive lots of calls/emails each day from PRs so invest a little bit of time in your pitch and think about why it is relevant to the journalist and why the story will resonate with their audience. It will help your pitch stand out from the crowd and the journalist will appreciate that you've put some intelligence behind it instead of taking the easy option and selling-in a generic press release.

JP