The generally free availability of information on the Internet and the technology that makes a lot of it so useful and efficient is both very positive and deceiving.
Yes, there are a lot of great time-saving tools and a wealth of information to make many aspects of your life better.
But don’t think that, just because they’re free there is no cost. There’s always a cost. And, when there is no charge to use something, then you pay with your time.
Your time is not free. There’s always an opportunity cost.
In a LinkedIn question I answered, John Ettore also answered and seemed to go on a rant when he questioned why would anyone spend money on a service that develops a media list for you.
I can’t for the life of me imagine why anyone would have to use a paid service for this task in 2009, 15 years into the Internet era. All of this material is free online. You may have to spend a little time assembling it, but paying $2K for a list that someone laboriously compiled? That strikes me as bizarre.
While I understand his point, Mr. Ettore seems to contradict himself:
“You may have to spend a little time assembling it….for a list that someone laboriously compiled?”
Little time and laboriously are not related. In fact, they are opposites. But, let’s get out of technicalities, and look into practicalities.
Okay, so let’s say I need to develop a media list. Let’s keep it relatively focused and say the general consumer media for the Cleveland metropolitan area. Dailies. Weeklies. Radio. TV.
Sure, go ahead and search for just the media outlets in those categories for the Cleveland DMA. Make sure you get general contact information, and at least circulation or audience for each outlet.
Then, try to find the editor or reporter who covers your topic at each outlet.
Then, try to find his or her contact information — telephone number and email at least — for each outlet.
Then look for a bio or profile on that person to see if there is anything that can help you better connect with him or her at each outlet.
There’s more information you’ll need to develop a solid media list, but the above is a great starting point.
How long do you think it’ll take you?
In using Cision’s MediaListsOnline (pay-as-you-need), there are 183 media outlets I found in dailies (20), weeklies (46), TV/Cable (17) and radio stations with a news-talk format (100). I won’t need all of those, but the information that Cision and similar services provide is a huge time-saver compared to if I’d have to track down the above information myself.
I’ll pay $2000+ per year to have some company do the groundwork to get me the basic information for media list development. It’ll save me way more than that in productivity and efficiency so I can use my valuable time elsewhere.
My time is worth a lot. What about yours?
-Mike
