Monday: Here's the best way to make a more meaningful connection with media during the holidays (and make your own life a lot easier).

Also: The PR Strategy That's Changing DTC Landscape

Good morning!

Today’s newsletter will be short and sweet as I’m headed into the city in a few hours for some pre-party primping - and then I’ll be seeing oodles of you tonight!

For those who can’t make it, you can follow along on my Instagram, but it’s going to be a great time with tons of my favorite people, delicious bites and, of course, martinis will be flowing.

As we’re all winding down for the holiday (actually, from all the OOOs I’m getting, many of you may be sufficiently unwound at this point), I thought it’d be apropos to share a few easy and breezy tips for the final days of holiday season media relations.

1 - No, it’s highly unlikely any of us are planning “last minute holiday gift guides” at this point. Target your energy elsewhere, and work smarter, not harder. Holiday gift guides become rather pointless if they publish after it’s feasible someone can have it ordered and shipped to arrive in time for a holiday. Better bet: Start pitching for January fresh starts and Valentine’s Day gift guides - those are already in play.

2. It’s the season of holiday treats, and many writers’ mailboxes are packed with everything from cookies and candy to giant advent calendar themed boxes containing anything from singing reindeer paper mache to snow globes to ugly Christmas sweaters to glow in the dark Santa hats. It’s all adorable, cute, and very creative - and probably costing your client a fortune to make happen. But I’ll let you in on a little tip - we’re all consumed with excess and the average person receiving your package has way less space than they have stuff to put in it. Additionally, we still have our own life administration to handle this time of year. That’s why the best gifts of all are the functional gifts, or the services. This is the time to offer people blowouts using your hair products or makeup applications as a way of experiencing the makeup you are pitching (perfect for holiday season parties!). Best gift of all? Well, I’ll tell you nothing excites me more than seeing an Uber gift card in my inbox. Other great gift cards to gift media during the holiday season is Amazon, restaurant delivery apps, grocery delivery apps, Starbucks, and so forth. Give those people you work with and want to send some love this season the gift of not more stuff - but of an easier time getting those things they will need and want to get anyway. It’s SO appreciated. (Note, gifts and/or holiday cards are NEVER necessary but if it’s something you are going to do, here’s how to make it easier on yourselves going forward.)

3. Holiday season is when we all slow down a little bit and focus on relationships and appreciation more than anything else (hell, that’s why I’m making my party into a Substack community event tonight!). Take the time to grow and develop relationships. Pitching can come back to the forefront in a few weeks. Focus on the personal. Go micro and return to macro in the new year.

Newly published or updated this week: For Travel & Leisure: I Travel Solo Often, and I Won’t Stay in Another Airbnb Without Packing This 1 Safety Device. For Forbes.com: 17 Cocktails To Enjoy In Honor Of Mocha Mousse, Pantone’s 2025 Color Of The Year and 10 Foodie Treats That Present A Delicious Way To Celebrate Hanukkah as well as 6 Hanukkah Cocktails To Try In Honor Of The Festival Of Lights. Finally, for Apartment Therapy: We Asked 7 Chefs for Their Go-To Cleaning Tips for Hosting, and Here’s What They Said and for The Spruce: How to Add Storage to Your Kitchen Walls and Make the Most of the Vertical Space.

In news you can use, I was recently interviewed for the Muck Rack blog, and we chatted about some best practices for PR to land all that holiday-related coverage and begin to look ahead toward 2025 media opportunities. We touched on timing, follow ups, targeting, and looking forward/not backward in pitching during this time of year — yup, all the stuff that always comes up in our consulting sessions and AMAs, so you may want to take a minute while refilling your morning coffee and check it out.

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Newly published or freshly updated

Since people are often asking about the status of stories from a while ago, and I only share stories in this newsletter that were published or updated in the current week, I have created a list of my author pages at various publications to which I contribute. Bookmark it and make your life a bit easier.

This list will live on my Substack URL and be updated as necessary. That way, you can see what I’m doing at any publication, at any time, from types of stories to general structure of stories to even volume and frequency of my content at that outlet.

This can also help you to target pitching a bit better. That makes your job easier, and mine too!

• Newsweek Readers Choice: Best Apres Ski Spots, Best Casinos with Live Music (outside Vegas), Best U.S. Wellness Resort, Best Packing Cube, Best Vodka, Best Gourmet Subscription Box, Best Mattress, and Best Outdoor Grill - more categories coming very soon!

• Travel & Leisure: I Travel Solo Often, and I Won’t Stay in Another Airbnb Without Packing This 1 Safety Device

• Forbes.com: 17 Cocktails To Enjoy In Honor Of Mocha Mousse, Pantone’s 2025 Color Of The Year

• Forbes.com: 10 Foodie Treats That Present A Delicious Way To Celebrate Hanukkah

• Forbes: 6 Hanukkah Cocktails To Try In Honor Of The Festival Of Lights

• Apartment Therapy: We Asked 7 Chefs for Their Go-To Cleaning Tips for Hosting, and Here’s What They Said

• The Spruce: How to Add Storage to Your Kitchen Walls and Make the Most of the Vertical Space

• Yahoo Life: 50 best wellness gifts to encourage a healthy lifestyle

• Apartment Therapy: 4 Popular Kitchen Trends Contractors Want You to Stop DIYing Immediately

• Southern Living: The 9 Best Bottles Of Bourbon, According To Southern Chefs And Bartenders

• Forbes.com: The Latest Holiday Dinner Hosting Trend: Outsourcing

• Apartment Therapy: The Unexpected Items Pro Travelers Always Pack

• Southern Living: Here's Why You Should Always Travel With Duct Tape

• Apartment Therapy: We Asked 8 Pro Travelers What They Never Pack in Their Carry-On, and Here’s What They Said

• Her Money: The best time to save on hotel bookings

• Travel & Leisure: This $7 Luggage Accessory Helps Me Feel Safe When Traveling — and I'll Never Have to Replace It

• Forbes.com: Holiday Gift Guide 2024: The Best Gifts For The Martini Lover

• Forbes.com: Holiday Gift Guide 2024: The Best Gifts For The Starter Kitchen

• Forbes: Holiday Gift Guide 2024: Beefy Texas-Inspired Gifts For The Southwestern Carnivore

• Food Network: Trader Joe’s Finally Has a White Queso Dip and It Was Well Worth the Wait

If you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social media shares! Please remember to tag @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.

Please remember when pitching me: Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com - do NOT just hit reply on this newsletter, or there’s a good shot your email will be lost in the heap. Give your email a subject line that makes it clear which story you are pitching me for — it’ll help you in the long run.

Please consult my industry insights guides on submitting expert commentary, sending emails that will catch a journalist’s attention, how to craft pitches journalists will say ‘yes’ to, and the right and wrong way to submit photos, if you need any extra guidance before sending your pitches.

Apartment Therapy

I Asked TK Organizing Pros to Share Their Biggest Organizing Regrets — Here's What They Said - I’m looking to chat with a few organizing pros about what their biggest organizing regret is. Like something in their household they got rid of, and regret getting rid of — why they got rid of it, and why they regret it. Could be a memento, an important document or photo, whatever. Drop me a note if you have someone who may like to weigh in!

Yahoo Life

I’m rounding up the best pedometers for counting your steps and rounding this story out by EOW. If you have a pedometer/smart watch (anything that tracks steps!) to pitch me, please do ASAP.

Forbes

In a moment of clear self-interest, I’m looking for restaurants and bars nationwide that have fun birthday (or birthday cake) themed cocktails. If you have anything, please email me the name, description, quote about the drink, and an image by Wednesday am.

Plate Magazine

I’m putting out bites/drinks of the week feelers, which is sort of a drink/dish spotlight piece. (Some examples are this Peruvian-inspired sweet potato in Savannah and a molecular banana daiquiri in Chicago.) Basically if you are pitching me something for this, think along the lines of: Is this dish/bite something new? What interesting techniques are used to make it come together? If the technique is simple, what’s the hook? An interesting ingredient? Something being made in house or in an interesting way? What’s the story behind the dish? What inspired it? Is there a cultural/family story behind the dish? An ingredient the chef got their hands on? Love to hear what you might have for me!

<3

aly