Should You Ask a Writer for a PDF of Their Paywalled Story That Features Your Client?

Plus: Send your questions for this month's Top Tier Talk

Happy Thursday, everyone.

Today’s topic comes from a growing trend that we’re noticing … and one that’s a bit more controversial than you might think: Asking a writer for a PDF of their paywalled story that includes your client.

We’ll dive in momentarily, but first we have two housekeeping items to call your attention to:

Send Us Your Questions: Our June Top Tier Talk is Going to be Done Via This Substack

Between Nicole and Jill’s travels this month, we realized we don’t have enough overlapping dates to hold our traditional Top Tier Talk … so we’re going to field your questions via this newsletter instead. Simply leave your question in this Google doc by EOD Monday, June 24th and then we’ll share the answers in next week’s Substack.

Seriously, ask us anything … about affiliate marketing, pitching, follow-up strategy, outlet/journalist targeting, holidays, I Tried It stories, whatever! We’ll get them answered for you next week.

Grab Your Influencer Marketing Zoom Recording Now: Lifestyle influencer Veena Crownholm joined us to discuss how to pair it with your PR efforts

A few weeks ago, we teamed up with influencer and brand specialist Veena Crownholm to discuss:

• how to find the perfect influencers to partner with

• how to send gifted product samples that could result in FREE social media mentions

• and best practices for making the partnership successful for your client’s brand

If you missed it live, you can still buy the recording for $49 (if you’re a Paid TTC Substack Subscriber) or $99 (if you’re a Free TTC Subscriber). Just shoot us an email at info@toptierconsulting.NET to grab your copy and catch up on this important topic that could add more revenue to your business!

Now, onto this week’s topic: Getting stuck behind the paywall of an article that includes your client

We’re seeing an uptick in a certain question from publicists that we wanted to address today: Your client gets coverage in a publication and you’re super excited … but when you click on the article, you’re hit with a paywall and you aren’t a paid subscriber. Argh!

Should you email the writer and ask them to send you a PDF?

Speaking of paywalls, here’s a paywall and all our best advice lives beyond it! Not a paying member? Here’s what you’re missing out on:

• Full access to our weekly newsletters

• Access to our extensive archive of paid posts on every PR topic under the sun

• The ability to attend/participate in our monthly Zoom Top Tier Talks

• Discounts on all our most popular group workshops

*Note: Our consulting sessions, workshops, Zooms and Substack newsletters are strictly educational. Signing up for anything has no bearing on landing coverage in any of our outlets. Our role is to fine-tune your approach and tactics so that you can apply these learnings when pitching other journalists.