Gail Nelson
Yesterday I was preparing some marketing materials to help promote the launch of a newly designed interface for BurrellesLuce Media Contacts – our online media database and news distribution service. To my surprise, this is one of the edits I was asked to make:
“Your Media Contacts subscription comes with email ^and fax^ distribution of your press releases.”
My response was, “Enough reporters still want faxed rather than emailed press releases so I would need to insert the word ‘fax’? I actually should itemize the fax as a stated distribution preference?” As it turns out, the answer to both those questions is “yes.”
According Tressa Robbins of our Media Contacts team, some journalists turn their backs on email announcements due to delivery issues and inbox overload. Tressa has noticed that while distribution preferences are highly individualized, reporters in smaller markets writing for weekly publications opt for fax more frequently than do journalists at large publications.
For me, the surprising ongoing viability of the fax has become this week’s theme. A few days ago, I read the Wired story, Burning Question: Why Are Faxes Still Around? The reporter, Eric Hagerman, asserts that fax remains a practical and speedy way to send an exact copy of a document: “Fax machines are everywhere: doctors’ offices, delicatessens, brokerage firms, even souvenir shops in the developing world (for verifying tourists’ credit cards).”
(Eric’s story is worth reading just for its brief history of the fax.)
On a personal note: In addition to attorneys, doctors, and journalists, add advertising salespeople to the list of the fax-dependent. The online ad, print ad, and event insertion orders (IOs) sent by organizations such as PR News, Bulldog Reporter Daily ‘Dog, PR Week, and O’Dwyers often instruct me to return the signed contracts via fax. But I choose another route whenever it’s acceptable, such as signing a PDF version using my digital signature.
No doubt, some of the preference for fax is generational, not merely functional. My colleague Johna Burke explores the need for sensitivity and accommodation in her presentation, Four Generations of Media, Four Generations of Audience, as well as in this Bulldog Reporter ‘Daily Dog by-liner.
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