Aly's Newsletter: Tuesday Edition
Good morning!
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
Happy Fat Tuesday to all celebrating. I hope there’s delicious gumbo and po’ boys in everyone’s future. (If anyone is in NYC and looking for suggestions, I’m super obsessed with Gumbo Bros. in Brooklyn and order their gumbo every time my soul needs some extra soothing…which you can imagine is quite often in recent times.) They also have a Nashville location!
This afternoon, I'm going to be hosting my first "Ask Aly Anything" Zoom event. This event is limited in the amount of seats I can offer, and is thus limited only to paid subscribers. But if you do want to attend, we do have a few spots left. All you need to do is upgrade your subscription to see the details. If you can’t make it, or we run out of space, don’t worry. Hoping to do one of these every few weeks if it goes well.
I was so happy to be reunited with two of my favorite humans last night. Amber (whose Substack is positively addictive and a must-subscribe), and Lisa (who somehow fits 30 hours of work into a 24-hour day each day, and yet just found time to start a new Forbes column AND is constantly sharing fun Instagram content). We hadn't seen each other since my birthday in December, and then, of course, the Omicron wave hit.
This was my first time "out of my cave" since then, and it was kind of perfect symmetry that the last people I saw before hibernating were also the same people who greeted me back into the world when I returned to it. Martinis and delicious steak made by hands other than my own also greeted me, which were also quite missed these last few months.
It's probably pretty well-known to anyone who has been a subscriber for a while that the right and wrong way to do mailers is a favorite soap box of mine. To that end, I was thrilled when Duree & Company asked me to write a guest blog for them on How To Create Successful Journalist and Influencer Mailers. Of course, this is all just my opinion, I don't claim to be all-knowing on, well, anything, but hopefully some of the tips in there will be helpful in your future mailers.
In related news, I have three Zoom events I’m attending in the next 48 hours, and all involve packages of ingredients being sent to me. Lets hope the shipping gods are in our favor…
Newly published
This morning for Food Network, I put my journalism degree to good use and wrote about the results of my taste test of the new "space inspired" flavor from Coca Cola.
New for FORBES, I did a roundup of chef tips for how to make a better meatball, in honor of National Meatball Day (which is next week!). Note, that's not MY meatball recipe, but now I'm inspired to share that as well...perhaps this weekend. (True story, it's my fur baby Lily's favorite food.)
For TODAY.com, I rounded up drugstore wrinkle creams and drugstore eye creams that really work.
LOTS of open story opportunities!
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.
Today.com
I'm working on a big roundup of restaurants open on Easter. We’re looking for a big list of big and small chains across the country –high and low. It's the Easter version of this story we did for Christmas, if you want an idea of the format I'm looking for.
For Today.com, I'm also rounding up food/restaurant chains doing special deals, discounts, and freebies in honor of St. Patrick's Day.
Finally, I'm looking for restaurant chains nationwide doing special deals/discounts for tax day (i have a few weeks to play with this one...a rare feat!)
HerMoney
For Her Money, I'm doing a story on how to order takeout/delivery in a way that is smarter. Personally, I RARELY order delivery. It's such a hit on the budget. But when I do, I do my best to avoid the third-party delivery apps with a ton of added fees, and often take advantage of the tail end of a lunch special to get dinner cheaper (or order a special that has more food at a good price, so I'll have leftovers, and thus, bang for my buck. I would love to speak to some experts on the smarter way to do takeout/delivery.
Also for HerMoney - speaking of food delivery...those grocery delivery apps. Are they worth it? Do you end up spending a lot more money for the convenience? And how do we get the best value? I would love to speak to experts for this one as well. As most of us, I spent the BULK of the last two years relying on grocery delivery, and it was a life saver (quite literally). But are we paying a premium for that convenience?
Clean Plates
For Clean Plates, I'm working on a roundup of the healthiest, best-tasting jarred tomato sauces available at grocery stores. This is a continuation of the series I have done (examples of previous stories in this series: chicken soup, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese), for this story, I'm looking to include tomato sauces that are organic, pesticide-free (if not organic), no added sugar (or extremely low added sugar, EVOO > any other oils. Have any tomato sauces to pitch me? Email me! Nutritionist who wants to comment on this topic? Please email me also! Please make sure to glance at the examples above first so you have a clear idea of the kind of story this is.
To pitch me for ANY of these stories, please email me at alywalansky@gmail.com (and start a new thread, please!).
Have a nice day!
<3
aly