Thursday, November 20, 2008

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Letter to the Editor: Know Thy Publication Editor

Re Juliann Grant's article, "7 Steps for Successful Meetings with the Press"

Hear, hear! There's nothing more tedious about a trade show than getting pulled into a booth for a press pitch that is unrelated to my editorial mission. Many vendors don't seem to realize that editors have their own fields of interest and expertise within the industry that their magazine covers.

I always listen politely as the sales/marketing/PR guy launches into his canned speech about what he wants me to hear, even though he hasn't made the slightest effort to find out what *I* want to hear. But then I walk away thinking two things:

a) Editor So-and-So should have been listening to that pitch, not me. There's nothing I can do with that information.

b) I'll be sure to avoid that booth in the future so they can't waste any more of my time.

Thanks for sharing that tip!

Vance VanDoren
Consulting Editor (writes for Control Engineering)