Make yourself heard!

by Alice Lascelles

I’ve just finished editing an excellent article for our May issue by the Underdog Group’s Will Beckett which tackles the question: how do you PR your bar if you don’t have the budget to pay a glitzy agency to do it for you? You’ll have to wait until the next issue to find out what Mr Beckett had to say on the subject (suffice to say his suggestions are free, easy and mostly legal), but some of the best advice concerned tackling the media and getting those free-loading - but sadly necessary - journalists on-side. Now, I’ve never accepted a free drink in my life, of course, but I am a hack with quite a few years of writing about booze for trade magazines and national papers, so I thought I’d use my first blog to add a few thoughts on the subject. 

Thought No.1 - If you can’t afford a PR company, it may be a blessing in disguise. I am oft of the opinion that the majority of PR companies are simply there to get in the way of, rather than assist, the flow of information. If a bartender contacts me themselves to tell me about their new bar, or latest seasonal menu or a series of talks they’re organising, I am about one billion more times interested than if I get a call from a PR on the same subject. Bear in mind that at busy times of the year, we may be getting dozens, even hundreds, of press releases a week, so a personal phone call or email will make all the difference. 

Get in touch here.

Thought No.2 - Don’t assume a story is too small or strange for our news pages. Every issue starts life as a series of empty pages. Many, many empty pages that need to be filled with stuff – your stuff. So tell us about your new bar, or your competition, a crazy recipe, the fact that your barback just won an award, your move to a great new job, or your departure from a crap one – we’d love to hear from you.

Thought No.3 - If you’re outside London, we’d love to hear from you even more. The UK bar scene, and press coverage of it, is often criticised for being London-centric - we heartily agree. But in our defence, with a few notable exceptions we hardly ever hear a peep from any bars outside the capital. Our editorial team of half a dozen staffers and freelancers do our best to get around the country but we need your help too, if we’re going to change this.

Thought No.4 - Tell us what you think. What do you like about the magazine and more importantly what do you hate? What do YOU think we should be covering? Perhaps you’d even like to write something yourself (hell if it’s publishable we might even pay you for it). So pitch us some ideas here.

Oh and finally, one other tip from the inside: enter magazine prize draws. No-body ever does, so you’ll probably win. Trust me.

Look forward to hearing from you…