Monday: The deadline domino effect + lots of newly published stories, and a few wrapping up today!
Hi, friends!
Before we get started today, a quick bit of housekeeping: I will be wrapping up my Forbes anti-Valentine’s Day cocktails roundup by later today. If you have anything to pitch for it, please email me by early afternoon or forever hold your peace (actually, not forever, just until next time).
Details on pitching instructions for that and other stories can be found by scrolling down to the appropriate section!
I imagine some of us are getting a late start after last night’s game but I have a busy Monday in store as I’m preparing for a consulting session in a few hours, and wrapping up a few stories over the next few days.
Related: Do you want me to host a Q&A session for your team? Email me and we can discuss!
Lots of newly published content to share For RetailMeNot, How to Save Money on Groceries in 2025: 10 Tips That Actually Work. For Apartment Therapy, a racy one just in time for Valentine’s Day - We Asked Experts for the Best Way to Store Sex Toys — Here’s What They Said.
Also new this week for Saatva: Daylight Saving Time and Sleep: 5 Ways to Sleep Better When the Clocks Change. For Forbes.com, I have tons of Valentine’s Day content to share. Several of my Valentine’s Day gift guides published: Valentine's Day Gift Guide 2025: The Best High-End Red Wines For Warming A Heart This Season, Valentine's Day Gift Guide 2025: The Best Romantic Culinary Experiences To Gift This Season and Valentine's Day Gift Guide 2025: The Best Gifts For The Romantic Martini Lover, also for Forbes.com: 25 Romantic Cocktails To Order For Your Valentine and 10 Delicious Ways To Set The Mood With Caviar This Valentine’s Day.
Also, this was a busy weekend for paid subscribers as they got two new Industry Insights posts - What We Can Learn About Pitching By Watching Super Bowl Commercials (timely!) and Here's How To Make It Easier For Me To Say Yes To Covering Your Client.
Reminder: I’m offering a limited-time special consulting session discount for paid subscribers: If you are a paid subscriber, you can for a limited time, get 25% off a virtual consulting session (where we can have your own private or agency-wide AMA session on anything you want to chat about!) — I have some slots open in the next few weeks, so if you or your agency is interested in booking one, email me today and we’ll chat details.
As I’m working on a FEW stories right now where sources missed a deadline by submitting late or ghosting altogether, I thought we could take a few seconds this Monday morning to discuss the deadline domino effect - and how a miss here can irrevocably harm a PR/media relationship.
Deadlines are a topic I’ve touched on before, both in weekly industry insights emails and my free daily one — and for good reason. Deadlines are the cornerstone of what we do.
We all have deadlines. Writers have them, editors have them, publicists have them, your clients have them.
Along that chain, anyone missing a deadline can ultimately have a sort of domino effect to everyone else's deadlines.
Much like with dominos -- then cause everything to pile down.
(We see that every time we go to a doctor's office, right? Or an airport. As soon as the schedule is a little behind, everything behind it just piles on and becomes more backed up as the day goes on.)
Years ago, I remember I was working with a publicist I was semi-friendly with on getting interview questions answered by her dermatologist client for a time-sensitive story I was doing for a major women's outlet. It was the sort of story where I got the assignment in the afternoon and had to turn around the story by the next AM (which, I know, is not THAT time sensitive being I have hour-turnaround food news stories most mornings, but due to the subject matter and time of day, it was).
Anyway, the publicist committed that her client absolutely positively could participate and answer those questions by the deadline I gave her -- EOD, so I could write that story that night and publish in the morning. By midnight, I had never heard from her. So, I reached out and asked if all was OK.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. She couldn't do it."
I ended up having to scramble -- AT MIDNIGHT -- to find someone who could turn around questions at that hour, so I could still meet my deadline and publish in the morning. (I actually did, I turned to a west coast contact, where it was 9 pm there - still late, but not ungodly late) - and met my deadline.
Crisis averted.
I'm not telling this story to shame that publicist for flaking, because obviously I've moved on and have actually used her clients in a bunch of stories since (though obviously nothing time sensitive!), but to make this a helpful teaching moment and offer this guidance.
1 - Who do you think I contacted the next time I had a super short deadline? Obviously the person who was helping me out at midnight, not the one that left me hanging! Be the person who comes through in a pinch, not the person who does the pinching.
2 - Deadlines have a domino effect. You missing your deadline will cause me to maybe miss mine. If you are going to miss a deadline (life happens!) tell me as soon as I know so I can find another source while there's still time.
3 - Treat people the way you hope yourself to be treated. No one wants to be the friend that is stood up at a bar, or left hanging on an email response. Just keep people posted and communicate, and everyone wins.
Remember deadlines are not arbitrary suggestions but when we need all the deliverables necessary so we can complete our own work and submit to meet our own deadlines. You are quite possibly messing with our relationship with our own editors and our future assignments by dropping the ball on this one. Be kind and respectful and honor that!
Thanks SO much to all of you who attended our webinar event last month, covering the upcoming ShareASale to Awin migration. During the Zoom, some of the topics covered were an overview of the migration process and timeline, pricing of networks, and choosing a network for your specific client needs.
If you missed it (or were present and just want to refer back to some of the topics covered during the info-packed session), we do have a recording available. This recording is available for anyone who is a paid subscriber of my newsletter, as well as Jill’s and Alice’s newsletters. Email any of the three of us and let us know and we’ll get the link right out to you!
Looking to up your affiliate marketing game?
Affiliate marketing is complicated, and it seems that the landscape keeps changing. If you are looking to be prepared for gift guide season and all other shopping-related content, you may want to try the 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!)
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 Cruise Ship for Families 2025, 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!
RetailMeNot, How to Save Money on Groceries in 2025: 10 Tips That Actually Work
Apartment Therapy: We Asked Experts for the Best Way to Store Sex Toys — Here’s What They Said
Saatva: Daylight Saving Time and Sleep: 5 Ways to Sleep Better When the Clocks Change
Forbes.com: 7 Cocktails And Snacks Prime For A Big Game Viewing Party
Forbes.com: Valentine's Day Gift Guide 2025: The Best High-End Red Wines For Warming A Heart This Season,
Forbes.com: Valentine's Day Gift Guide 2025: The Best Romantic Culinary Experiences To Gift This Season
Forbes.com: 10 Delicious Ways To Set The Mood With Caviar This Valentine’s Day.
Forbes.com: Houston Restaurant’s $15,000 Cocktail Experience Offers A Valentine’s Day Fit For Royals.
Forbes.com: Valentine's Day Gift Guide 2025: The Best Gifts For The Romantic Martini Lover
Forbes.com: 25 Romantic Cocktails To Order For Your Valentine
Apartment Therapy: I Tried the 30/30 Rule, and I Discovered Something Unexpected
Forbes.com: Ghost Donkey Brings Agave-Forward Cocktail Program To Chicago’s River North
Travel & Leisure: A Travel Writer's $10 Amazon Packing Hack for Shoes
Apartment Therapy: 10 Experts Share Their Biggest Decluttering Regrets
Parade.com: How To Use an Air Fryer (Beginner's Guide)
Martha Stewart: 19 Walk-In Pantry Ideas for a More Organized, Stylish Space
Forbes.com: Chef Nobu Matsuhisa Brings Gold Standard Sushi To This Year’s Golden Globe Awards
Forbes.com: 8 Hot Toddy Variations To Try Just In Time For The Winter Chill
Food Network: Starbucks Finally Adds Cortados to Its Menu
Southern Living: Can You Eat Wilted Cilantro?
Today.com: Do drugstore wrinkle creams really work? Experts weigh in
Martha Stewart: 18 Coffee Table Décor Ideas That Blend Form and Function.
Travel & Leisure: I Travel Solo Often, and I Won’t Stay in Another Airbnb Without Packing This 1 Safety Device
The Spruce: How to Add Storage to Your Kitchen Walls and Make the Most of the Vertical Space
Southern Living: The 9 Best Bottles Of Bourbon, According To Southern Chefs And Bartenders
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 Pro Travelers How They Pack for Spring Break, and Their Organizing Tips Are So Good: I would love to chat with some pro travelers - those who travel AS their job, not circumstantially “for” their job - and ask them how they best pack for spring break and keep organized. For instance, bringing outfits, swimwear, etc. if they are going to a warmer weather location from a colder/damper one, and any other tips/tricks.
I Asked Plumbers What They Wish People Would Stop Doing to Their Toilets — Here's What They Said: I’m looking to speak to plumbers and ask them what they wish people would stop doing to their toilets. For instance, flushing anything other than toilet paper, using flushable wipes, using the wrong plunger, etc.
Saatva
Working on a story related to stages of sleep, and I’ll need some experts to weigh in — as far as what the stages of sleep are, factors that impact sleep stages, that everyone's sleep cycle may look different and can be affected by a variety of factors like age, sleep patterns, alcohol use, etc. (I’ll have some specific questions so please don’t jump the gun on commentary, just email me if you have a credentialed expert - one not affiliated with a mattress brand, please!)
Forbes
I’m rounding up ANTI-Valentine’s day cocktails - all the dark, heartbreak, bitter cocktails for the season. If you have any that may fit, please pitch in the following format…
If you have anything for me, please make sure you have all of the following before pitching:
Name of drink/dish
Where served: Name of restaurant/bar, city, state, URL
Description (not a recipe!)
Quote about dish from chef/bartender
LINK to image (low res is fine) - and appropriate photo credits
Also with Mardi Gras coming up, let me know if you have anything fun cocktail/dish wise going on for that…
Also, I’m looking for fun ways to celebrate Mardi Gras at home (maybe po boys or gumbo recipe kits or that you can have shipped to your door) as well as fun spots to celebrate it right in NYC - specials and so forth. Send me the deets!
<3
aly