You are only as good as your press list. You can put together the most fantastic press release, but if the wrong people see it, it’s worthless.

Putting together a press list is something my clients struggle with because..well..it’s boring. But it has to be done, so my suggestion is to get on with it, or delegate it to an assistant, confident teenager or intern. Here are some suggestions that might make it easier.

1. Who is Your Target Market
Is it local? Who are you aiming at – parents? Schools?

2. Build A Library
This could be the local papers, national newspapers, local newsletters and magazines, radio stations, what’s on and listing websites. Get copies of any that are printed. If you’re stuck on titles, The Guardian Media Directory, available from the Guardian website, is a good investment at under £20.

3. Set Up Your List
This could be on a simple Excel sheet, or a newsletter service such as constantcontact.com. The advantage of the latter is that you can track clicks so that you know which releases get the most attention. You may have more than one target name for each publication. In the case of a local newspaper you may have the News Editor, a family writer, women’s page editor and Features Ed.  On a radio show you may be contacting the Assistant Producer, Forwarding Programming and Researcher.

4. Get To Know Your Publications
Good PR is not just a case of sending out press releases to everyone and hoping that one of them will stick. Looking at publications or listening to radio show shows and coming up with ideas and angles that suit them is vital. If you have a team you can assign particular publications to particular people.

Boosting Your Press List – Media Requests
They are requests for case studies or quotes from journalists.

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If there’s one way to make sure that you get your PR moving, that’s to give yourself a deadline. And what bigger deadline could you get that a specific date where you meet the press.

Here’s our 7-point guide on inviting press to an event…

1. Decide what it is you will do and put it in the diary. If you’ve got something to eat or drink, organise a tasting. If you’ve got a venue, organise an open day. If you’re exhibiting, invite the press along to your stand at a specific time for a mini press event.

2. Chose a date. You want enough time to be able to organise something different, and yet a date that’s close enough to give some urgency.

3. Find a partner. If there’s a venue that you think could do with the publicity, approach them, or buddy up with someone who targets the same market and split the work.

4. Invite the press – keep the invites personal (no round robin emails), eye-catching and give them a good reason why they should come. Think about whether you want to go for numbers, inviting lots of press (and paying for the inevitable drinks bill!), but ultimately reaching a maximum number of publications in one fell swoop, or target and go for a small intimate group where you can get your message across.

5. Follow up. And follow up again. Speak to them and find out if they can make it along. If they say yes call to confirm a week before and again the day before as a reminder.

6. Think about goodie bags. There’s many a journalist has come along to an event for the goodie bag alone if it’s good enough. Once they’re there it’s up to you…

7. Stay in Touch. If they made it, call to find out what they thought. If they didn’t make it, call to see if they’d like a personal meeting/samples sent over.

One the night…

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REUTERS:

Dunkin’ Donuts, America’s favorite every day, all-day stop for coffee and baked goods, announced today the signing of a multi-unit store development agreement with existing franchisee Ganesh Donuts for the development of two additional restaurants in Clarksville, TN.  The first location is anticipated to open in 2011 and the second in 2012.  Dunkin’ Donuts development in Clarksville is part of a steady
and strategic growth strategy, which includes expanding in existing markets while entering new cities across the country to help drive the leading coffee and bakery chain’s growth.

For the past seven years, Ganesh Donuts LLC, owned by Mahesh Prajapati, has operated its current location in Clarskville on 1645 Fort Campbell Blvd.  The store has recently been remodeled in Dunkin’ Donuts new design that reflects the current trends of today.

“We are proud to expand Dunkin’ Donuts’ presence in the Clarksville community and look forward to continuing to play an important role in the daily lives of people who live and work here,” said Mahesh Prajapati. “Ganesh Donuts LLC has experienced great success over the last seven years as a Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee, and we’re excited to expand our relationship with these two additional locations.”

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Sacramento Business Journal:

Long time Jack in the Box Inc. franchisee Abe Alizadeh suddenly and temporarily closed 70 Jack in the Box restaurants in Northern California, before re-opening Friday, the San Diego-based restaurant franchising company reported in a news release.

The 70 Northern California Jack in the Box locations reopened Friday afternoon after Alizadeh filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the four corporate entities that operate them, spokesman Scott Rose said.

The restaurants closed Thursday with little warning by Alizadeh, the Roseville-based franchisee, while he resolves tax issues with the state of California. Alizadeh is one of the largest franchisees in the company, Jack in the Box spokesman Brian Luscomb said.

“Our focus in the days ahead will be to return to normal business operations and to work cooperatively with our creditors to complete this process as quickly as possible,” Alizadeh said in a prepared release.

Alizadeh for much of the past decade with his company Kobra Development was an active real estate developer, building offices, retail parks and business centers. The real estate downturn caught the company in a highly leveraged position, and Kobra struggled over the past three years, filing for bankruptcy reorganization in November.

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Fast Casual:

Breads of the World, the Panera Bread franchisee for central and southwestern Ohio, will honor National Breast Cancer Awareness Month by offering a Pink Ribbon Bagel now through Oct. 31. The bagel features cherry chips and real bits of Bing cherries and cranberries.

A portion of the proceeds from each Pink Ribbon Bagel sold will benefit the American Cancer Society. This year, Panera Bread has partnered with both The Glass Thimble in Columbus, Ohio, and Stitches Quilt Shop out of Cincinnati, to encourage guests to participate in a quilt campaign.

The ‘Joined In Hope’ Pink Ribbon Bagel Campaign will give customers the opportunity to decorate a 6 x 6-inch piece of fabric with a special message of hope targeted toward survivors, those who have passed and other loved ones living with breast cancer. Additionally, for the first time, a quilt with squares created and signed by Ohio celebrities will be auctioned off with proceeds going to charity.

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Franchise.net.au:

Diners enjoying the current taste for Mexican food can look forward to a brace of new restaurants as the Mad Mex chain of three stores turns to franchising.

Sydney’s Crown Street, Darlinghurst was the original location 18 months ago for the Baja style food outlet focused on serving fresh quality ingredients and a great customer experience. Two further outlets opened, one at AMP Centre in Circular Quay, one in the Macquaire Centre, North Ryde. Blacktown’s Westpoint, Castle Towers in Castle Hill and Westfield at the Central Coast town Tuggerah are in line for openings in December. The Blacktown restaurant will be the first franchised operation, the franchise bought by an existing store manager.

Founder Clovis Young said the move to franchising would bring in people who are passionate about Mexican food, the Mad Mex brand and customer service.

“Franchising creates the best customer experience and best product,” Young told Franchising. “Owner operators bring a passion to the business and make the quality of the product their number one focus. We want to make sure we bring in franchisees who are 100 percent confident of properly representing the brand.”

Mad Mex is designed to appeal to a younger, hipper diner than traditional Mexican restaurants in Australia, signified by the brand character Mex, a wrestler.

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Longridge Today:

Longridge entrepreneur and Subway franchisee Steve Richards is set to expand his sandwich empire with another Preston store.

Managing Director of Fast and Fresh Restaurants and Subway Development Agent Steve, was last year awarded as the 70th fastest growing business in the Virgin sponsored ‘Fast Track’ Awards and his efforts across the North West have helped cement the Subway brand as the UK’s leading sandwich retailer.

And with the promise of opening 10 stores by the end of 2009, Steve is hoping to secure yet another Fast Track award in the Spring.

Steve, a former Longridge High student, moved into the family building company on leaving school before launching a shop-fitting venture with his brother.

At the age of 26 and despite a successful business, Steve decided to take a year out and embark on a trip around the world.

It was on a tour of Australia that he first came across the Subway brand and realised that a British franchise had major potential, he says: “When I came back home, there was only one Subway store in Brighton. “The brand was relatively unknown in the UK and I realised it was something that could be built on. I was keen to learn more about the business so I went back to Australia for six months.”

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Examiner.com:

Franchise businesses provide for over 20 million jobs across the country and contribute nearly $2.3 trillion to the U.S. economy.  This year, West Coast entrepreneurs will have multiple opportunities to learn from leading experts about the “how tos” of buying and financing a franchise business during the West Coast Franchise Expo Oct. 2-4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Topics include:

• Financing your Franchise
• How to Buy a Hot Franchise
• The 7 Secrets You Must Know Before Buying a Franchise
• The 3 Traps that Will Kill You
• The A to Z’s of Buying a Franchise

Many seminars will be provided in Spanish and specialty seminars for minorities and women as well as Veterans will also be held during the exposition. Attendees will be able to meet face to face with franchise company executives from over 150 franchise companies.

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WordPress STD’s (Security Transgression Defilements) are a common occurrence. WordPress-powered websites are far from being immune to hackers, although the latest release/s address many earlier security issues. WordPress, like other content management systems and forums such as phpBB, vBulletin, is a major target for hackers and spammers. Basic prophylactic measures, or condoms for WordPress STDs, need not be complicated or expensive.

Those involved in hacking WordPress usually want to use the sites as concealed (cloaked) link farms. Its rare that actual damage is done to your site, and often the site owner remains blissfully unaware that there’s been any interference. Some of the link injection systems are extremely sophisticated! Testing for enemy action can be as simple as opening your site and choosing View / Source and reading through the content of the <Head> section down to, and including, the <BODY> tag. The link injections I’ve seen are usually immediately after <BODY>. Is there a long string of HTML code containing links to dozens of sites you know nothing about? If there is, you’ve been violated, and have a WordPress STD (Security Terminated Deficiency)!

This article is not about fixing security violations. Its about simple prophylactic measures most “non-technician” site owners take. This is not slick and professional security strategy, and there are some who will scoff at using  “security by obscurity” as a primary tactic. However, even on a tight budget, the following 12 zero-dollar steps can and should be taken to minimise the possibility of attack.

1 – Always Use the Current Version
Why anyone would persist with an older version is beyond me. Upgrading has always been easy enough, and recent versions reduce the pain to a button click!

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Steve Ells dreamt of opening a fine-dining restaurant but – like many first-time entrepreneurs – lacked start-up funds. His solution in 1993 was to open Chipotle Mexican Grill, an easy-to-operate joint that could be the “cash cow” for his upscale establishment. But the idea took off, and the Denver-based eatery with its foil-wrapped burritos soon won loyal customers and big backers such as McDonald’s Corp. In 2006, the company went public, and now has over 900 locations, 24,000 employees, $1.3 billion in annual revenue and a focus on naturally raised ingredients. Mr. Ells, 43 years old, remains Chipotle’s chairman and co-chief executive. He still hasn’t opened his fancy restaurant.

Edited interview excerpts follow:

Q. Let’s hear about your early days.

A. Having never taken a business class, the economics of restaurants scared me. I opened Chipotle with the idea that I could step away from it and use it to support my full-scale restaurant. There were very few moving parts. We served just a few things, burritos and tacos, and it was put together very simply with plywood. It had a very funky, raw look to it. Of course it also had a low investment cost. And so what resulted was this restaurant that was, in fact, quite replicable.

Q. As a classically trained chef, you didn’t set out to open a fast-food chain. Have you stayed because of the success, or did your passion change?

A. One of the pivotal moments for me was realizing that our “food with integrity” approach at Chipotle was satisfying my passion.

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GazetteXtra.com:

The Toppers Pizza headquarters looks nothing like a typical corporate headquarters.

In fact, it looks a lot like most urban college apartments.

Comfy couches and chairs surround a chic coffee table and a flat-screen television.

Retro movie posters fill a void on a golden-yellow wall.

A pool table anchors a corner in the back, and a refrigerator stocked with beverages anchors the corner in the front.

But that’s exactly the image the regional pizza purveyor and its founder, Scott Gittrich, want to present: Toppers Pizza isn’t like the chain pizza places; it’s the pizza place with an edge—a hip, left-of-center edge.

“We just let ourselves be ourselves,” Gittrich said.

And it’s that image and a loyal following that have catapulted the Whitewater-based company to the top of the highly competitive pizza industry—even as an economic downturn has threatened to rattle the big pizza chains. Toppers has grown from 13 stores in three states in 2007 to 26 stores in six states today.

Crazy toppings
Gittrich, 46, a native of central Illinois, got his start in the pizza business as a delivery driver, pizza maker and manager at Domino’s while he attended the University of Illinois in Champaign.

He worked for the national chain for 7 1/2 years until he hatched a plan to open a different kind of pizza place.

Gittrich set out to create a company that was unlike Domino’s, which dominated the market while offering just two sizes and 10 toppings, and unlike Pizza Hut, which had just started delivering, and unlike Papa John’s, which was practically unknown.

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dBusinessNews:

CFO Wes Jablonski promoted to Chief Development Officer

DALLAS – Wingstop, the nation’s fastest growing chicken wing chain, has named current CFO Wes Jablonski as Chief Development Officer to support the company’s rapid expansion plans over the next few years. In this newly-created position, Jablonski will oversee franchising, development and real estate for the company.

“Creating the role of chief development officer better positions Wingstop for our next level of strategic growth,” said James A. Flynn, president and CEO of Wingstop. “Wes spearheaded a national franchise program that resulted in Wingstop expanding to 650 restaurants open or in development in 33 states. His expertise in franchising, real estate and finance coupled with his dedication to the Wingstop brand makes him the perfect candidate for this new role.”

With more than 30 years of experience, Jablonski is a veteran of the restaurant and finance industries. He joined Wingstop in 2003 as executive vice president of business development, and transitioned into the role of CFO in 2006. Under his direction, Wingstop has steadily flourished into one of the top fast casual dining chains in the country and has experienced 24 consecutive quarters of positive comparable store sales. Jablonski was recently named a finalist in the Dallas Business Journal’s CFO of the Year Awards.

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Mainebiz:

Coffee News is an unassuming single sheet of brown paper found in restaurants across America. The two-sided assortment of local ads, trivia and funny anecdotes may not look like much, but it has caught the attention of one of the nation’s most well-known business publications.

Forbes magazine recently recognized the Bangor-based operation as one of the top 20 best franchises in the country to start now. Operated out of the home of resident Bill Buckley, the weekly publication has 1,070 franchises in the United States, Canada and 18 other countries from South Africa to Peru.

Though recognized several times over the years by Entrepreneur magazine, Coffee News has earned its first-ever recognition from Forbes, a fact Buckley attributes to the glossy magazine’s recent effort to attract franchisers to its ad base. “We’re just flabbergasted,” he told Mainebiz. “Not that we think we didn’t deserve it. We didn’t think people would notice. We’re a niche publication; we’re not The Wall Street Journal.”

Forbes, teaming up with a franchise database operator, ranked 400 franchise operators that require less than $100,000 to open a new location, have operated for at least five years and are currently opening new locations.

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Dallas Business Journal:

Over the next 60 days, Dallas-based Interstate Batteries plans to add the company’s retail component to more than 140 wholesale distributorships nationwide and expand in Dallas-Fort Worth.

“It’s our backyard, and we have some aggressive plans,” said Mickey Elam, president of franchising and development for Interstate Batteries. With two stores in the area now, the goal is to have 15 to 20 in the next three to five years.

Interstate Batteries has more than 300 wholesale distributors serving more than 200,000 commercial dealers. In 1999, the company created the Interstate All Battery Center to serve individual buyers. In 2005, franchising began. Currently, there are 150 locations worldwide.

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GMA NEWS.TV:

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -  Fast food giant McDonald’s wants to open more stores in Mindanao’s “growth areas,” an official of the Philippine franchise holder said after opening its fourth outlet in this city.

“We feel that we still need to establish more stores [in Mindanao and] we are grabbing every opportunity that comes,” said Luke T. Tan, director for real estate, asset management and franchising of Golden Arches Development Corp.

Mr. Tan visited Cagayan de Oro at the weekend to open the fourth McDonald’s store here, located at the SM City Cagayan de Oro shopping mall. The SM mall has been operating for seven years without a McDonald’s outlet.

Sherwin Caduyac, one of the first diners at the new McDonald’s store, said the fastfood brand has become more accessible to residents in the city’s upland section. “Since the mall opened seven years ago, we have been asking why is there no McDonald’s,” said Mr. Caduyac.

Mr. Tan said that since the Philippine McDonald’s operator became fully owned by Filipinos, the store has been aggressive in opening more stores, with about 15 to 20 new outlets each year. “The strategy is to put up more stores in key cities and we have earmarked Cagayan de Oro as one of the growth areas where we can still open more stores [in the near term],” said Mr. Tan.

McDonald’s operates over 300 stores nationwide. McDonald’s SM City Cagayan de Oro has 50 staff members and five managers.

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The Franchise Magazine:

Indian restaurant franchise Tiffinbites has experienced an injection of new capital as part of a £6 million investment in its parent company V8 Gourmet Group by actress and Celebrity Big Brother star Shilpa Shetty and her fiancé Raj Kundra (pictured). The couple have taken a 33 per cent stake in the group, which also encompasses the Bombay Bicycle Club Kitchens, Vama and Gourmet Creations brands.

The purchase took place in August and the group intends to plough the proceeds into expanding its Bombay Bicycle Club Kitchens delivery service, adding a second Vama Restaurant in London and growing its network of Tiffinbites restaurants, concessions and franchises in London and abroad, including opening two casual dining and shopping mall dining formats in Dubai in October and Jordan in March next year.

“In January 2009, we acquired the business of Gourmet Restaurant Group which comprises of Tiffinbites, The Bombay Bicycle Club Kitchens and Vama,” said V8 Gourmet Group Managing Director Arjun Varma. “This provides the group with an excellent platform towards its growth aspirations and gives V8 a clear lead in the Indian Food sector.

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WVNSTV.com:

BECKLEY – The Huddle House in Beckley is expected to re-open soon. The restaurant is under new ownership, in fact, the franchisee is in training at the corporate headquarters in Atlanta this week.

Bob Canter, the new owner of the Huddle House in Beckley says his goal is to re-open the restaurant as soon as possible. Canter says he looks forward to expanding the options for people in the area when it comes to 24 hour food service.

The Huddle House is now accepting applications, at the Microtel, where Canter also works as a General Manager. It’s right next door to the Huddle House or you can apply at Workforce West Virginia. The restaurant should be back in operation in the coming weeks.

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BUSINESS WIRE:

 Domo, the fuzzy brown creature with a trademark enigmatic open-mouth expression, takes 7-Eleven® stores by storm this fall. From collectible Slurpee® cups filled with Fuji Frost by Fanta, and flocked Slurpee character straws to Big Bite® hot dog containers, coffee cups and even an exclusive Domo Attack! Energy drink, Domo will have 7-Eleven customers seeing brown, interrupted by red and sharp white teeth.

Created by Japanese illustrator and director Tsuneo Goda as the mascot for Japanese public television station NHK in 1998, Domo has a unique look and personality that quickly catapulted the character into one of the Internet’s biggest sensations. Domo has achieved pop culture super-status through user-generated content and thousands of viral videos on popular websites like YouTube, Facebook and Flickr.

“Fuji Frost has a sweet red-apple taste, which is a tongue-in-cheek choice since apples are the one food Domo doesn’t like,” said Jay Wilkins, 7-Eleven category manager for proprietary cold beverages. “Because Domo loves Slurpee drinks and appears everywhere in our stores, theoretically Fuji Frost Slurpee drinks are Domo-proof.” Fuji Frost is named for Mount Fuji, Japan’s most well-known landmark.

A new three-part webisode, which can be viewed exclusively online at www.slurpee.com and www.domonation.com, tells the story of Domo and his friends on a quest for a Slurpee beverage. Each of the 30-second segments will debut weekly on the two websites starting Oct. 1.

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WJHG:

The lawsuit is against Fundamental Provisions, LLC, which owns Popeyes restaurants in Panama City, Lynn Haven and Destin. The suit claims the franchisee did not pay over $150,000 in back wages and overtime to fifty-six general managers.

The complaint names a total of thirty franchises owned by Fundamental Provisions. The alleged wage deductions were made to cover cash shortages and food waste over a two-year period, starting in late-2006.

In a statement, Popeyes corporate officials say the restaurants are independently owned and operated. But, they are working with the franchisee to ensure a proper investigation takes place.

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Irish Franchise Magazine:

Pizza delivery franchise Domino’s Pizza seeks talented entrepreneurs to open franchised stores in Armagh and Dungannon, Northern Ireland as part of its eight-year expansion plan. Domino’s Pizza currently has over 580 stores operating in the UK and Ireland and is aiming to open 50 new stores each year to reach its goal of at least 1,000 by 2017. Head of Franchise Development at Domino’s Andy Hirst commented: “With a fanatical focus on customer service, an outstanding product and the support of an established brand, Domino’s franchise owners can only go from strength to strength. We are looking for talented people who are keen to capitalise on the nation’s need for pizza. The roll out in Armagh and Dungannon represent an exciting chance for local entrepreneurs to invest in a tried and tested business model with a market leader.”

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