It’s the time of year when I dread answering my phone. I know that any day now, my clients are going to call and ask – “have you started looking at editorial calendars for next year?”

Editorial calendars used to be pivotal when pitching a publication. But times change, and for all intents and purposes, editorial calendars are tools for advertising sales reps to get clients to buy ads. If they can point to an issue and say “you need to be in this issue,” it makes it easier for them to sell space.

But from my point of view, editorial calendars are an archaic pitching tool. With print publications getting smaller, and more often than not outreach efforts landing on the web, calendars are a hindrance to good relationship building and outreach. And the web, being a 24×7 outlet doesn’t need to rely on a calendar. A calendar might, to my way of thinking, hinder the outlets ability to react to what is going on in the market.

Rather than contacting an editor because a calendar says a specific issue is a fit for your client (or worse, because you aren’t sure the topic is a fit, but if you squint your eyes and stretch like Gumby you can see a way to make it fit), how about establishing a relationship with the editor, knowing what he or she cares about and what they want to convey to their readers and then pitch them appropriately?

Until clients agree that the calendar, while great for advertising actually has little effect on PR efforts – and the coverage obtained – we’ll keep generating them.

Is that my phone ringing?

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