For all of you folks who fall into the “public relations” category of the communications world, here’s an interesting piece from PRWeek discussing reporters’ practice of blacklisting e-mail addresses from PR pros that they deem to be spam or unwanted.
While some reporters feel publishing such lists will cause other PR professionals to think twice before clicking send on that blast pitch email, Wired.com senior editor Dylan Tweney has a different perspective on the issue:
“…I think most reporters are probably savvy enough and dependent enough on PR folks not to do something like that, because they know they get enough information from that channel – as noisy as that channel is.”
I tend to agree with Tweney. Blacklisting specific email addresses really isn’t the best way to keep from being included in blast pitches–nor is publishing those lists and running the risk of burning any bridges you may have with an agency or professional. From my experience (and yes, I’ve been asked a few times to “please remove me from this list”), a simple note back asking not to receive such emails in the future will work just fine. And then you can go reprimand the intern who put that media list together!
