Trust Tip 35: Make your contact information truly accessible

Published on November 3, 2019 by Mollie Muchna | Reading Time: < 1 minute

Finding phone numbers and email addresses for journalists can be really frustrating. It’s almost as if we don’t want to be found. I had an experience last week that I hate to imagine your audience having. I wanted to email a journalist, so I went to his news organization’s website to find contact information. The Contact Us page had only a general form, with options to have your message go to different departments (circulation, obituaries, etc.). No names. No direct info. So I played detective and guessed what it might be (first initial, last name, url, perhaps?), then googled that potential email address. Voila! Your community members probably don’t know how to do that, and they shouldn’t have to. In this scenario, they would most likely just give up, and they would leave with the sense that you don’t actually want to hear from them. More from this edition can be found here and to receive the tips in your inbox each week click here.

Mollie Muchna

mollie@trustingnews.org | + posts

Project manager Mollie Muchna (she/her) has spent the last 10 years working in audience and engagement journalism in local newsrooms across the Southwest. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she is also an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism. She can be reached at mollie@trustingnews.org and on Twitter @molliemuchna.