There’s too much snark and negativity in the world today. So I don’t want this to come across as either snarky or negative. But here’s the thing: I get a lot of unfocused junk email from PR people. Nothing against PR people. I sometimes sleep in a bed next to a PR person. But with all the email I get from them, I can’t personally respond to each and every missive. So I thought I’d do it here, on FrontBurner, publicly, just in the interest of saving time.
With that preamble, here’s today’s email from a PR professional. My response follows.
Good morning! Hope all is going well with you.
We have a press release we would like to go out either this week or early next regarding the sale of an apartment complex in Irving, TX.
Would this be possible?
I have attached the write-up. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for the well wishes. I guess I can’t complain. Or I shouldn’t complain. I’m sure you’ve heard about the pandemic. Lots of folks are dealing with way worse than I’m facing this morning. But since you mentioned it, I am exhausted. Couldn’t sleep last night. Not sure why. I moved to the couch at midnight so as not to disturb my wife. Around 2 a.m., some people were walking up and down the alley with flashlights. That was weird. But they appeared harmless. Best I can figure, they were searching for a pet. Oh! And the surgical wound on the back of my leg where they removed the melanoma still hasn’t fully healed. So there’s that.
But on to your press release. That’s awesome about the apartment complex! Irving is an interesting place. I remember once the mayor of Irving was chapped at something we’d published in the magazine about Irving, so she and the Irving city manager came to D Magazine to set me straight and talk up their fine city. That was Beth Van Duyne. Now she’s a U.S. representative. That’s wild.
Question: when you say you want your press release to “go out,” do you mean we’d just publish it, like Steve Brown publishes press releases over at the Dallas Morning News? That’s my first question. My second question: if we’re busy with a deadline for the October issue, what if we can’t make your write-up go out this week or early next week? What if, like, we couldn’t make it go out until January? Is that a problem?
In conclusion, congratulations again regarding the sale of the Irving apartment complex. Your parents must be so proud.
