Tuesday: It's National Burger Day! Also: Last call for Father's Day gift guide and National Martini Day pitches + more!

Also: A 20% discounts on my virtual consulting/lunch & learn sessions!

Good morning!

Today is National Burger Day (and May is actually National Burger Month!). For Forbes.com, I wrote about 20 Delicious Ways To Celebrate National Burger Day. And if you just can’t get enough burger content, you may want to check out my latest Food Network story - I Tried the New Pizza Hut Cheeseburger Melt and While It’s Not a Burger, It Has Everything You’d Look for in One or this one I did for The Kitchn a while back where I recreated the McBaguette from Emily in Paris (it’s such a chic upgrade to the cheeseburger!).

In other new content, for Forbes.com, this is a fun dessert martini to try! The Italian Wedding Cake Martini Is A Dessert Cocktail Perfect For A Celebration, and for Southern Living, I wrote about The 9 Best Brown Sugar Substitutes That Will Be Just As Sweet.

It was a great long weekend that started with trying out the brand-new Bourbon Steak location in NYC (which you may recall topped my Eat This, Not That list of best fries at steakhouse chains nationwide) and finished with a super-fun day with my mom yesterday - we tried out the Brooklyn Lip Lab location and made our own custom lipsticks and glosses (obviously named after our fur babies.)

alywalansky

A post shared by @alywalansky

(Yep, that’s my mom! Isn’t she super cute? Also she hates having her photo taken, so it’s a big deal when I get her to agree to a spontaneous selfie).

This week I’m wrapping up one final Father’s Day gift guide as well as my guide to martinis for National Martini Day. Scroll to the pending assignments section below to see what I’m looking for as far as pitches for these and other assignments - and please make sure to include all components - I get A LOT of pitches for these guides and that’s the best way to get considered!

Grab the Dads and Grads Gift Guide Pitching Webinar Recording Now!

Thanks to all who attended our Dads and Grads Gift Guide Pitching Workshop last week. We had a full house and an hour packed with really great questions and conversation — and now the full recording is available to any subscriber who may have missed it (or wants to go back and give another listen.) You can check out how to grab that recording and what we covered right here.

This weekend’s Industry Insights edition was focused on Why You Were Not Included In That Story (And How To Up Your Odds) .

On occasion, people reach out to me for help with planning press dinners and events - from choosing the perfect location to keeping things fun and interesting to how to get top journalists to want to attend. If you are interested in me doing this for you, email me any time at alywalansky@gmail.com.

This newsletter goes out to well over 8,000 engaged publicists, business owners, and journalists each and every day. If you are looking to sponsor a daily installment of this newsletter or have a dedicated section about your client or product (assuming it’s an organic fit for the interests of my audience!), that is now available. Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com to discuss.

The steepest discount I’ve ever offered on consulting sessions

In exciting news, I’m doing something I’ve never done before: I’m currently offering 20% discounts on my virtual consulting/lunch & learn sessions. Times are really tough and I am hoping to make these insights as accessible as possible to any of you who are interested. If you want to schedule a session for yourself or your team, to discuss anything from pitching to followups to events or press trips or anything else…drop me an email at alywalansky@gmail.com and lets chat!

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!

• Forbes.com: 20 Delicious Ways To Celebrate National Burger Day

• Forbes.com: The Italian Wedding Cake Martini Is A Dessert Cocktail Perfect For A Celebration

• Southern Living: The 9 Best Brown Sugar Substitutes That Will Be Just As Sweet

• Forbes.com: Father’s Day Gift Guide 2024: The Best Gifts For The Culinary Traveler

• Forbes.com: Father’s Day Gift Guide 2024: The Best Gifts For The Dad Who Wants To Be Bobby Flay

• Forbes.com: Father’s Day Gift Guide 2024: The Best Gifts For The Sandwich Lover

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

• Southern Living: Can You Freeze Baked Beans?

• Forbes: A Hot Dog-Inspired Cocktail Takes Summer Cookout Season In A Savory New Direction.

• Food Network: Uber’s New Student Membership Program Makes Delivery Deals Sweeter

• Food Network: I Tried the New Pizza Hut Cheeseburger Melt and While It’s Not a Burger, It Has Everything You’d Look for in One.

• Clean Plates: 7 Blue Zone Foods That Help Increase Longevity

• Forbes.com: Celebrate Season 3 Of ‘Bridgerton’ With Regency-Inspired Cocktails

• Forbes.com: Martha Stewart And Breads Bakery Collaborate On Martha’s Good Thing Babka

• FoodNetwork.com: It Was Only a Matter of Time Before Velveeta Started Making Its Own Queso

• Southern Living: What Is An English Cucumber?

• Best Life: 11 Essential Kitchen Items to Always Have for Entertaining

• Clean Plates, 11 Mediterranean Diet Foods You Can Get at Trader Joe’s

• RetailMeNot: How Using My Air Fryer Makes Cooking on a Small Budget (and In a Small Space) Possible

• Southern Living: How To Preheat An Air Fryer

• RetailMeNot: How to Save on Food Delivery Apps: 10 Tips That Actually Work

• Today.com: These affordable drugstore wrinkle creams are recommended by derms and makeup artists

• Southern Living: My Recipe for Air Fryer Green Beans (these are so good!)

• Clean Plates: The Healthiest Tomato Sauces You Can Buy at the Grocery Store

• RetailMeNot: How Growing My Own Herbs At Home Has Helped Me Keep Meals Creative Without Busting My Budget

• Clean Plates: How to Clean and Organize Your Fridge for Spring

• HerMoney: The Best Timing For Hotel Bookings - How To Save On Your Stay

• RetailMeNot: Savings Star Origin Story: How I Learned to Eat Well (In NY!) On a Shoestring Budget

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.

RetailMeNot

Budget shopping and cooking/eating smarter: As you all know, I write a lot of content for RMN related to budget shopping and cooking/eating smarter. I’m going to be working on a monthly column on the subject of cooking/eating well on a budget, and I’d love you to pitch me products/ideas to consider for it - maybe a new meal-stretching product that is a good deal at a grocery store, an awesome product to try that may cut my meal prep time in half, other themes as far as saving money on food/cooking/eating and doing it in a way that is smarter.

Saatva

I’m working on a piece on blackout curtains and if they are really worth adding to your bedroom - I’ll need some expert commentary for this one, and will have some specific questions to ask soon, so please don’t jump the gun on sending commentary yet, I’ll have more information on this one tomorrow — but meanwhile if you have an expert who you think may be a fit (not brand-affiliated, preferably) please drop me a line!

Forbes

For Forbes, I’m working one final Father’s Day gift guide. Here’s what I’m working on and how to pitch me. Please pay attention to ALL these details before pitching to save us both time (and if you want some tips on how to best pitch for Father’s Day gift guides, be sure to check out the webinar I linked to above!)

The Best Gifts For The Traditionalist Foodie: Maybe he loves steaks from Texas or bagels and lox from NYC. He appreciates the classics and knows where to find them and how to best enjoy them.

To pitch for these gift guides, please include:

• name of product

• a few sentences describing the product so I know if I want to learn more

• a LINK to an image (and any necessary photo credits)

• a link to a major retailer where available (it must be currently in stock and not a presale link or out of stock or discontinued…people need to be able to click and buy it right now.)

Looking forward, my favorite culinary food holiday is soon upon us - that’d be National Martini Day! If you have a fun or unique martini going on, tell me more about it (and i’m of course also open to dishes inspired by martinis for this one!). I need name of drink, where served, a description, a quote about it, and an image of the cocktail. These cocktails MUST exist on a bar or restaurant menu in order to be considered.

These stories will BOTH be wrapped up by EOW.

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!)

Virtual (and now in-person!) consulting sessions...

Whether you need a consult as you plan your next event or trip or just want someone to take a look at the pitches you’ve been sending and give some feedback, I’m available for PR team virtual meetings to answer questions about pitching, events, followups, mailers and trips from a media perspective.  Note: I’m also available to travel for consulting sessions as long as travel expenses are covered. We can chat! This is available for entire agencies or smaller group lunch and learn type concepts.

<3

aly