Aly's Newsletter: Tuesday Edition

Good morning and happy Tuesday!

Before we get into new stories I am working on, I wanted to chat a minute today about managing expectations. 

Daily, after I share links to that day's published stories, I usually get a lot of emails asking me to provide "feedback" on why a specific product was not included. Vocabulary often involves words like "why were we excluded?" or "why did you omit our mango margarita with unicorn gold dust?"

I get the impression at these times that people assume that ... Everyone is included. So, I always have to reiterate that for roundups or listicles that may include 10 or 15 products/cocktails/dishes, I usually get hundreds if not thousands of pitches. That means that the VAST majority of items are not included. 

Perhaps that will help you manage your client's expectations and your own and not need to write that email next time. And remember, there's always another story. Not being in this story has no bearing on being in the next one. Play the long game!

PS: This Is Us is on tonight!

Newly published

Food Network: Starbucks' Summer Menu Is Here: Say Hello to Chocolate Cream Cold Brew

The Kitchn: Cup Noodles and HipDot Released a New Line of Ramen-Inspired Makeup and It’s Super Spicy

RetailMeNot: 10 Father’s Day Gifts for Every Type of Dad

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.

Oxygen

I'm working on a story on how to incorporate your pet into your workout routine - in a sense that they are kept busy and exercised but are also a sort of accountability partner, We always use all our chores and life tasks as an excuse not to take better care of ourselves, but one way I've always found to "cheat" is to combine activities - and making pet time also be workout time can be one of those. Would love some expert sources to weigh in (by Friday, please!).

The Complete Guide to Keto

This is a *print* magazine to be published by Centennial Health in August 2022. I'll be working on a story on Meals for All Eaters -- How to Feed a Food-Loving Family. This story is essentially advice on creating meals that allow one person to be on keto while everyone else is eating non-keto meals. Maybe adding pasta to meat and veggies, or making two easy casseroles? I'd love to talk to an R.D. re: how to do this, and also how to balance nutrition for kids/teenagers/men and a keto dieter.

For clarification, since I’ve gotten a few emails regarding this story: Basically, I want to imagine that someone has gone keto and has kids and a partner who doesn't want to go keto. At the same time, we want everyone's meals to be healthy and balanced (in a keto way or in a typical way), so the concept shouldn't be that they just eat more meat, but maybe add almonds or olives to her meal (keep the keto balance in mind) and that a kid could maybe eat a cup of mac & cheese and not all the meat. Or whatever. I would love a nutritionist to comment on what a kid's dinner should look like or any other advice they might have (including that if you're going to do keto you should eat healthy fats not a bag of pork rinds). 

I'm also going to do a sidebar on frozen dinners -- those you can find in a grocery store/Walmart/Target/Whole Foods. Deadline for this one - May 15.

Retailmenot

For RetailMeNot, I'm rounding up Memorial Day store hours for 2022. This is the Memorial Day version of the Easter store hours story I did for them, so take a look at that one for format, but I'll have 3 sections - Stores Open on Memorial Day + Store Hours, Stores Closed on Memorial Day, Restaurants Open on Memorial Day + Hours. This Memorial Day story is an update of this piece from last year. So if you represent a store or restaurant in that story, it'd be so helpful if you can reach out with your Memorial Day info if you have it handy.

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

Virtual consulting sessions...

Over the last six months or so, I've popped into a fair amount of PR team meetings and made 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!

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!)

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<3

aly