Our mission statement says we aim to 'encourage and enthuse' our readers, who are the frontline managers of Britain's coffee houses.  Those are words you don't often see from a magazine!

Very senior trade figures (both trade associations in the UK, for a start) agree that these people are the ones will will spearhead the further growth of retail coffee, and all marketing managers agree that the salesperson who is enthusiastic about a product does a better job of selling it.

So our job is to spread the enthusiasm around the trade - and there's a vast number of things to get enthusiastic about!

Would you be kind enough to bear this in mind when sending us press data?  And, if you are wondering how best we can carry a story, please feel free to ring us and discuss it in advance - we may be able to suggest something, or even offer a way in which we can give it greater space.

We very much enjoy working with PR people who have taken the trouble to learn about and understand the product they are promoting.   We think that all professional PR people will understand why we tear out hair out when we receive the burblings of bimbos who haven't a clue what they're writing about ... and before long, some of the best examples of that will be appearing in our next book!

Otherwise, we do look forward to working with you, for everyone's good - we take the view that in a trade paper, we're all on the same side, spreading information through a trade for everyone's benefit.

A few notes, which we hope will be helpful, are in the right-hand panel.

If you care to call, Ian at 01872 501050 will do his very best to assist you creatively.

(You may find the email easier: ianb@coffee-house.org.uk )

What we do, and what we don't do...!

*  With regard to pics, we are grateful for illustrations as prints, or as Jpegs on CD or e-mail.  Generally, Broadband carries a reasonable size of file, but we do appreciate those who ring to check before sending us a n immense file!

*  We do not charge for 'colour separations'.   This is a fraud, and we're surprised that some magazines still try it, and get away with it.  We don't agree with it - we aren't going to say it's dishonest, but darned nearly.   Pictures which we select to go with editorial we have written will carry no charge.

*  You can have paid-for editorial and pics, but only in the form of   advertising, and we will always make it perfectly clear that it has been paid for.   But we do not accept 'advertorials' which are made up to look as if they are an editorial page from our paper.

*  We do not always carry a features list. Our attitude is that if you have something worth writing about, then it's worth writing about at any time, and preferably as soon as possible!  So, if you have something to say - don't worry about whether it fits a schedule, just call us.  If we can suggest how and when we can carry it to best effect, we certainly will.   If you care to call us well in advance of a launch date, to discuss how best we can cover it, and if you care to give us as much advance data as possible, then this will help everyone, and we'll respect an embargo.

*  We very rarely carry any quote which has not been directly spoken to us.  We certainly do not carry the kind of quotes which have been endlessly polished and 'improved'  by a management team!    One of the features of Coffee House is that we write in everyday language, we carry quotes spoken in everyday language, and our readers do genuinely like this.     If you can steer your client away from writing the kind of 'quote' that sounds impossibly un-natural, we'll appreciate it, and you'll be doing everyone a favour.

*  We rarely carry case studies or application stories.  It's not that we don't like them, but they too often just puff-up the client, instead of giving useful practical data to other possible users of the product or service.   However, such stories do often inspire the idea of a full feature or interview on the subject.

*  We do not, in our editorial pages, carry pieces written by manufacturers or suppliers.  And we most certainly do not carry pieces by-lined to a manufacturer, but actually written by someone else.  We believe this to be unethical.   The credibility of our magazine rests on the fact that our readers know all our content is written, independently, by ourselves.

*  We do occasionally carry offers of product samples, but we prefer not to be told by suppliers that they're doing us a favour by making our magazine interesting!  Most of the time, these offers are pure advertising, and have to be paid for.  

*  We do occasionally carry competitions, and the same applies!

NOTE -

***  We regret to advise that anyone who thinks it is clever to add logos, headers and footers as watermarks in a Word document press release, risks having the entire thing being ignored.   Some of these things are virtually impossible to remove !

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That last comment aside, we do hope these items will be helpful, and that they don't sound too demanding... our aim is always to provide the best result for everybody.