Even though I’m not permanently employed by any media outlet, I get a fair amount of press releases. I’ve written things, my name is out there and somehow they manage to get my e-mail address.

A press release I got today opened with this line:

Did you know that nearly 40 million Americans decided not to fill a prescription ordered by their physician in the past year because of cost?

Now, it was actually not a traditional press release and it went on to tell a very nice (local!) story that did interest me to some degree. However, like I said already, I’m not employed full-time anywhere and am currently a bit busy with freelance work.

It also occurred to me that I’ve gotten more than one story like this in my in-box before and my response is always the same, even if I don’t share it with the sender of the message. 

So I decided to share it just this once in a comical manner I hope won’t be misconstrued. I wrote back thusly:

Did you know that millions of people with good stories to tell decide not to tell them themselves because they think they need to go through a reporter or editor first?

If you’d like me to expand on what I mean, let me know.

Best,

Anna Tarkov

Think it’ll work? I’ll let you know here if I get an interested response.