Today, we got a nicely written news release about an upcoming event, and it was labeled as a media advisory.

No big deal, right? Of course not. But it can lead to a small bit of confusion on the receiving end.

Information pours into a newsroom or any business in a variety of ways – some clear, others a bit blurry.

A recipient of such an advisory might ask – do they want us to tell folks all about it now, or just show up to cover the event itself? (Both, most likely. In a perfect world;-)

Some advisories/alerts are told in obvious, bullet point who-when-where fashion, on down to who will be available to interview, what visuals will be there, etc. Info that really helps on a planning calendar, when deciding what to cover and how.

There’s no such thing as a perfect approach. Some entities helpfully combine both – put the not-for-public media advisory details at the bottom of a news release that’s “for immediate release.”

Quite often, due to the rising tide of emails, I’ll point them kindly to a self-posting event calendar.

In a perfect world, every worthy release would get picked up for use on the air and/or a posted article. But with so many great organizations seeking a reporter or editor’s attention, one has to triage and ride the daily news tide, which can raise the bar higher in terms of what makes it through by the end of the day.

I’ve been known to hang onto worthy releases/info for weeks, in hopes of posting them on a “slow” (slower?) news day. But eventually, you just have to focus and prioritize what’s coming in today. Fresher content rises on the triage matrix, so to speak – we’re a filter, not a funnel, alas.

So I just suggest you carefully consider your labeling. I’ve said it here before, I think – we often ask an organization that if they had to choose, which would they prefer – an earlier story, meaning an “advancer” that alerts more people to their class, event, talk, etc. – or that we cover the event itself?

It’s a much higher bar for us to do both, in the media world, depending of course on the importance of what’s coming up. But sometimes, we – and you – just have to choose.