Aly Walansky is a freelance writer and Forbes contributor whose work appears in Yahoo, Travel + Leisure, and more.
Welcome back to Coffee with a Journalist! In this episode, we chat with freelance writer and Forbes contributor Aly Walansky, whose work appears in Yahoo, Travel + Leisure, and more. Aly shares her love for freelancing, how she manages a packed inbox, and why Substack helps publicists stay on her radar. From pitch pet peeves (think vague subject lines and last-minute asks) to the importance of real relationships, this episode is full of tips for navigating media outreach. Enjoy!
Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:
How Aly Manages Her Inbox
[00:03:44] BB:
Okay, so how do you survive the inbox, Aly?
[00:03:54] AW:
What I do is prioritize things that are due immediately. So let’s say I’m working on the National Caviar Day story—if I see a pitch related to caviar, I’ll look at it right away because that’s relevant to what I’m doing right now, today. If something’s related to something due next week, I’ll prioritize that next. I do open everything, but I don’t necessarily answer everything.
[00:04:20] BB:
Okay, so just to be clear—you open everything?
[00:04:24] AW:
Yes, I open every single email. I say: fight the subject line.
[00:04:28] BB:
Seriously?
[00:04:29] AW:
Yeah. Because if you were to pitch me pink cowgirl boots today—and I’m not working on any boot stories right now—who knows? Maybe in September I’ll be working on a gift guide: “Great Gift Ideas for the Girl Who Wants to Be a Cowgirl.”
[00:04:43] BB:
Yeah.
[00:04:44] AW:
You never know. So I’ll go back to my inbox and search “boots,” and your email from July 17th will pop up. That way, I always have it there if I need it.
[00:04:55] BB:
But Aly, to clarify—you literally open every email? Like, you just open it?
[00:05:00] AW:
Yes, I open every email. Now, if the email is a million words long, I’m not going to read the whole thing—but I’ll read at least the first paragraph or two.
[00:05:07] BB:
Okay, so is it safe to say subject line isn’t much of a concern for you? You don’t care?
[00:05:14] AW:
Well, I think subject lines matter when it comes to prioritizing. That’s why I actually get annoyed when a subject line is something completely non-explanatory—like “Hey,” or “Quick question,” or “Got a second?” or “Can I ask you a favor?” Because that gives me zero guidance. I don’t know if you’re inviting me to something, pitching a story, responding to a call for sources—I know absolutely nothing.
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What She Loves (And Some Pet Peeves)
[00:05:38] BB:
So what do you love from publicists, Aly?
[00:05:46] AW:
I love when they—especially when we’re talking subject lines—make them really descriptive. Almost treat it like SEO: tell me everything I need to know about what’s inside, right in that first line. So, for example, if it’s for your frozen food story: “DeFera now has a frozen pizza.” (Which they actually do now, by the way.) That way, I instantly know what story it’s for, why you’re pitching me, and what the pitch is about—which helps me. And within the body of the email? You could be my absolute best friend by including the who, what, where, when, and why of your pitch right in the first paragraph—almost like the inverted pyramid of a news story.
[00:06:28] BB:
Yes.
[00:06:29] AW:
Like, look at the same concept there. That way, if I’m opening your email and do a quick one-paragraph read, I know everything I need to know in under one minute—and that is the best thing you could do for me. Perfect.
[00:06:44] BB:
I hope everyone heard that: the inverted pyramid. That’s what you should be doing. You alluded to it a little when you talked about vague subject lines, but what else bugs you, Aly, from publicists?
[00:06:55] AW:
I hate when I publish a story and share the link, and then someone emails me after and says, “Hey, can you add us in?” No, you cannot add cheese to your burger after you’ve already eaten it. It’s digested—it’s in the past.
[00:07:10] BB:
Yep, that’s a... I’ve never heard someone give such an on-point analogy, but I love that. That’s great.
[00:07:17] AW:
And it happens all the time. There is a better way to do it.
[00:07:19] BB:
Yes, of course.
[00:07:20] AW:
Yes. If I’m doing a roundup—National Tequila Day is coming up—and I’m doing a roundup of tequila cocktails, and you miss the deadline and the story’s already published, you can say, “If you do another story like this, I’d love for you to consider...” Yeah, exactly.
[00:07:39] BB:
Okay.
[00:07:39] AW:
The door is not closed. But the door is closed on that story.
[00:07:42] BB:
Yes, yes. Any other pet peeves you have about people who ghost?
[00:07:48] AW:
I think pitching is a lot like dating. It really, really is.
[00:07:56] BB:
Yeah.
[00:07:56] AW:
Very often someone will answer, “You know what I’m working on,” and I’ll be looking for, I don’t know, a mixologist or sommelier to weigh in on a story. I’ll send questions to them, tell them my deadline, and I understand that stuff comes up. You could just let me know—send me an email and say, “Mixologist Joe had a family emergency.” Yeah, yeah, yeah, it happens. Then I’ll go to the next person on my list and email them. But people don’t always do that. They just disappear and never send a response. You wonder if they died.
How SubStack Has Changed How Aly Works
[00:18:45] BB:
Okay, sounds good. We’re gonna wrap up here in a few minutes, but Substack—you’re quite bullish on its legacy and the traction it’s had. I just saw something on the Substack Instagram saying, like, “Oh, dang, it’s past the Wall Street Journal in terms of monthly viewers,” or something like that. Don’t quote me on that. But I was like, “Oh, dang.” So I imagine you’re bullish—what would you say?
[00:19:09] AW:
Substack has completely changed how I work. It’s so much better. For years and years, publicists would email me and ask if I had any sort of distribution list to share what I’m working on. Because there used to be a lot of journalists who sent out an email once a week or once a month listing their current stories. I never had anything like that. If I had a call for sources, I would just, you know, shoot and pray on either Twitter or Facebook. There were a couple of groups of publicists and writers where you’d find things. Then I decided maybe I could do something like that for them but also help myself. That’s when I started my Substack—about three years ago—which I think makes me kind of an early adopter. I wasn’t the first by any means, but I was one of the first. Now I send it out almost every day. I have almost 10,000 subscribers, almost entirely publicists. There are definitely media and small business owners, but mostly publicists. It’s really interesting because I get a lot of quick turnaround assignments. I can get assigned a story Monday morning, write it, and submit it by the end of the day. Without a quick, easy way to get responses, it’d be harder to write those stories.
[00:20:33] BB:
Yeah, I love that. What a collaborative way to get the sources you need, help publicists, and call exactly what you need. You almost created your own personal “hoarder,” your own personal “horde.”
[00:20:48] AW:
It kind of really is. It makes my life so much easier. I have both free and paid subscribers. Paid subscribers get additional benefits like Zoom workshops and AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions where I try to give them value. Free subscribers get value too. Honestly, I love it. It’s almost like I have a live journal—if I want to date myself back to 1999, that’s great.
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