Aly's Newsletter: Monday's open stories!

Good morning!

I hope you had a great weekend and are relaxed and refreshed for the week ahead.

This weekend's industry insights newsletter covered all my advice on how to make your email one that journalists will want to read.  You can still check it out here. 

My next industry insights newsletter will go out later this week (usually Saturday AM most weeks) and focus on the deskside (both virtual and IRL)  - how journalists feel about them in the here and now, and how to make them more effective and useful, as well as modern alternatives to consider to the traditional concept.

If you have any questions or comments about this - either from a media or journalist perspective - and want it to be addressed in that newsletter, please drop me an email at alywalansky@gmail.com. Please also email me if there’s a topic you’d like covered in a future newsletter.

Newly published

Food Network: Airy Mayo Mousse May Be a Condiment Game Changer

Forbes: Father’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Gifts For The Aspirational Home Chef

Clean Plates: These Tasty, Healthy Dinners from Trader Joe’s Take 10 Minutes or Less

TODAY.com: Don't feel like cooking this Memorial Day? These 22 restaurants are open

Forbes: 10 Regal Cocktails Perfect For Toasting To Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

TODAY.com: Where to score food freebies and dining deals on Memorial Day

If you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social media shares tagging @alywalansky and the outlet. 

Here's what I'm working on:

Be sure to read the below list carefully. Many are stories I posted about yesterday, but some of yesterday's stories are no longer listed and a few new ones have been added since yesterday. This (below) is everything that is still a currently open opportunity as of today.

RetailMeNot

Working on 3 new stories for June for RetailMeNot:

 1. The Best Father's Day Sales to Shop Now: I'm looking for the biggies for this one,  places like Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, Amazon, Target, Walmart, Ancestry, 23andMe, Fitbit IF they are throwing a sale. I'm looking for retail sales only for this one (NOT restaurants - I have a different story at a different outlet for that). TO pitch for this one, please include  what's on sale, how to shop it, the promo code.

2. Fourth of July Store Hours + Stores Open Fourth of July (similar to the Easter and Memorial Day store hours roundup I did for this same outlet). This is for major retailers, look at my versions for other holidays for an idea of what I'm looking for.

3.  Stores That Let You Bring In Your Old Clothes for Recycling - quite simply, I'm going to round up retailers that let you bring (or mail) in your clothes for recycling. To pitch me for this one, please send me detailed instructions about how to take advantage of these services, so if the retailer gives any kind of reward (discount? coupon?) if you bring clothing in for recycling? and a link to learn more (whatever URL makes the most sense for the reader to go for more info). 

Today.com

For Today.com, I'm working on the following stories:

•  I'm rounding up restaurant deals/freebies for National Donut Day (which is the first week in June)

• I'm also going to be rounding up Father's Day and graduation related deals/freebies at chain restaurants (so if you happen to have those now feel free to send ahead!)

If pitching me restaurant deals/discounts for any of these holidays, please be sure to include what the deal is, how to claim the deal, and any disclaimers, as well as exactly how long it lasts and where it’s good. (I run into A LOT of last minute changes on these deals, so please be sure what you are pitching me is actually the deal being offered before proceeding…it helps us BOTH down the line.)

Forbes.com

I am working on a bunch of Father’s Day gift guides. My topics are:

• Father’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Foodie Gifts For A Dad Who Loves History -- This can go in a lot of different directions. Perhaps it's a food or spirit with some incredible history behind it (tell me what that history is) - but maybe it's also a food/drink that celebrates a moment in history, like a commemorative bottle of wine or whiskey from some historic event. 

• Father’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Martini Gifts

To pitch me for any of these guides, please email the following:

• Which guide you are pitching

• Name of product

• description

• link where sold, price

• LINK to high-res image (no attachments please)

Unfortunately, due to the volume of responses I receive, if you do not have all these components, you cannot be considered (and if you think a pitch is just emailing me a stack of URLs, then you really can’t be considered). These two stories should publish shortly after Memorial Day, so you still have a few days to get those pitches in!

To pitch me for ANY of these stories, please email me at alywalansky@gmail.com (and start a new thread, please!).

Virtual consulting sessions...

I've been popping into a lot of PR team virtual meetings and making myself available to answer all sorts of questions about pitching, events, and trips from a media perspective.  If you are interested in setting anything up for your own team in the coming months, please email me and we'll get something on the books! This is available for entire agencies or smaller group lunch and learn type concepts. If you are a freelance publicist and want to join in with a few other freelance publicist friends and set something up, we can do that as well!

Are you confused about affiliate marketing?

If you are having trouble learning how to navigate issues of affiliate marketing (trust me, we've all been there!), you may want to try out my friend Sarah Karger, a publicist, and former editor Dana Baardsen (and all-around fab girl!)'s Ultimate Masterclass and Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Publicists. It's a brilliant course and it'll answer all your questions (including some you didn't know you had!)

Download the Substack App!

Good news! This newsletter is now available via app. That means you can keep up with everything you are reading from your phone. Download the app for iPhone and iPad here. For Android users, sign up for the waiting list here.

Today's Reading

My good friend Alice has recently announced she is expanding her Substack to include industry insights and AMA sessions. She has been in the industry a long time and has some great insights, so I encourage you to follow this link and check her newsletter out!

<3

aly