"..Try to avoid Mondays, Fridays and weekends when sending out your news announcements. Mondays tend to have the highest volume of press releases, so your release may get lost in the Monday swell. As for Fridays and weekends, most journalists and media members take two of these three days off, so there’s a good chance your release won’t cross the path of a reporter (and even a consumer) on that day. As for time of day, most news releases are sent out right on the hour (i.e. 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., etc.). Because of this, I recommend distributing your company news off the hour, like 7:55 a.m., or 9:15 a.m. This makes your release stand out a bit more from the crowd. If you’re targeting U.S. media, you’re better off sending news in the morning hours of Eastern Standard Time (EST), since most journalists, media members and consumers are free to consume news during these morning hours, and not in the afternoon when they’re either working or on deadline. The ideal days and times to send out news are Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, anytime between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. EST, OFF the hour. The same principles hold true for international distribution, EXCEPT keep in mind the time difference of where you are distributing your news release. For example, if you’re in New York City, and you’d like to distribute a release to London media, be sure to note London is five hours ahead of NYC. As a result, you’ll want to set your release time somewhere between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. EST." |