My Thoughts on Press Release Timing

This week your thoughts might be on defrosting the turkey in time for Thursday and planning all the side dishes to be ready at the same time. This week I was also thinking about the best time to send out a press release. How does a national holiday such as Thanksgiving affect when you should send out a press release?

We asked ourselves that question this week regarding the release of our book Building the Green Machine: Don Warren and Sixty Years with the World Champion Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps. Lucky for us, author Colt Foutz lives near the Cavaliers based in the Chicago area and he is contacting local media and spreading the word about the book’s release, which happens to be next week. His question to us was, “Is it best to send a press release out this week, a short work week, or next week when people are back in the work routine?” We opted for Tuesday of next week so it doesn’t get overlooked as someone is flying out the door to hit the road today, or get buried under a pile of emails and faxes they will face come Monday morning. Always think about the timing of weekends, holidays, and other events that may affect whether your press release is given a second glance or lost in the confusion . . . and good luck timing that turkey dinner.