How the editorial team works at TechDay: Our tips for you

The TechDay editorial team is incredibly busy as we run 25 tech news websites around the globe. We work hard, and we work fast.

Hundreds of press releases and news leads come through our systems every day - in translation, we are often receiving more than 1,200 per week. This means our editorial team is snowed under at the best of times, and we cannot possibly turn everything we receive into a published story.

By preparing your press releases to the guidelines below, you'll not only make our lives easier but will also improve your chances of being published.

We use an internal system called Newsdesk. This system receives all press releases and story ideas, in addition to the ability to monitor our competitors' sites. Each of these automatically become 'story leads'. An editorial team member categorises each story lead by which sites in our network it would be relevant for.

Our top tips for tech marketers and PR agencies

• Sending to the right place - Do not send releases to an editor's email address. If you send releases to an editor directly, they will just forward them to the Newsdesk. So all you're doing is delaying the editorial consideration process and creating extra work for our editors. Instead, send releases to our PR inbox at editors@techday.com. Please only send ONE copy of a release - there is nothing more frustrating for editors than filtering through duplicates of the same release - or even worse, missing a great release because it was sent to the wrong place.
• Also, do not feel the need to ask if you can send through a press release, we want to see your stories. Asking first is delaying the process and means more work for our editors, which could instead be spent writing.
• Sometimes PR agencies in different regions modify the headline/subject line/release to fit their region. Please refrain from doing this; one release for all the regions is enough.
• Press releases MUST be at least 600 words long - All press releases with lower word counts will be immediately deleted. We don't have time to ask for additional info or chase extra words for our stories. The only exception is job appointment-type releases that can be shorter.
• Everything on the first email -  If you have additional information, include it when you send the initial press release, as we will not read follow-up emails.
• What we aren't interested in - Please do not send to us press releases about cryptocurrencies, NFTs, aviation and the power industry (unless it's IT related).
• Subject lines should read like headlines - They should include the brand and the announcement in the subject line, which helps it stand out to our editors. Subject lines with little information like 'Our press release' or 'Cyber security news' are unlikely to be selected.
• Avoid PDFs and Word docs - Having the release in the body of the email saves us time and increases our chance of selecting your release. It saves time and also saves the formatting issues associated with grabbing quotes out of a PDF.
• Multiple releases - If you have multiple press releases at the same time, for example, a set of announcements from a conference, then split them into individual emails. This enables us to allocate them to individual editors without extra work. Otherwise, we may miss one of your announcements or combine them.
• We love real photos of people - If it's interesting and the right size, we'd love to consider replacing cliche stock images with real images, whether they're of a person, new data center, or otherwise! Images must be landscape format and at least be 1200 pixels wide x 677 pixels high. We cannot include text in images as the words may be cut off on social media and Google News.
• Return the favour -  When our team writes up your announcement as a story, it costs us time and real money in wages. Are there ways you can support TechDay in return for our efforts? We have advertising, sponsored opportunities, case study writing and numerous other services available. The least you could do is amplify the story via your social media channels.
• Unless it's huge news, we don't have time for interviews - Our editors are time-poor, and interviews require hours of work. Instead of offering to set up interviews with various people within the industry, in most cases, it is much easier (for both sides) to simply send through their announcements or press releases via email.
• Bylines - We receive hundreds of byline requests. However, we only accept paid content that is exclusive to TechDay.  If you would like to submit a byline, contact your account manager or email sales@techday.com
• You don't need to call or email us to ask if we've received your release - if you've sent it to our PR inbox, we guarantee that we've received it. We even check the spam folder regularly to make sure nothing slips through. By following up, you risk the editor thinking it's a duplicate and both getting deleted.
• We can't respond to email or phone follow-ups. When you do this, it honestly just wastes everybody's time - and it can also mean that sometimes we end up with duplicates in our newsdesk system, which wastes more time
• Embargoed releases - When it comes to embargoes, sometimes we just don't have time to prepare a release before the embargo. If we don't respond, there is no need to send the release again once the embargo is lifted, we will still have it queued or already written and scheduled.

Following these simple tips will make lives on both sides of the press release easier, as it's more efficient for us and improves your chances of being published.