This post probably isn’t for most of you gentle readers out there. Instead, it’s for our friends in the PR and marketing arenas. Thus, unless you’re greatly interested, you can probably bow out now. If you are in the PR or marketing world, we’d like it if you could read this before reaching out to us.
Here at Scofflaw’s Den, specifically in regards to the blog, we specialize in producing original content geared to an audience interested in cocktails, spirits, bars, and to a lesser extent, cigars, all with a DC bias. I’d like to discuss each of these aspects of our content in reverse order.
DC bias: We do cover other cities from time to time – for instance, when one of us travels to another city, or if one of our friends is doing something special in another city that we think interests our audience. For all intents and purposes, we do not travel to other cities in order to cover events. If you are interested in having us cover an event that is not in the DC area, you may contact us, but to be honest, the answer will be no unless expenses are covered. For all of us, this is a “second” (or even “third”) job, and travel takes up a lot of time and money that we do not necessarily have.
Some events, either in DC or elsewhere, we do cover because we plan on being there. In that case, we’ll cover it as we wish. If you do wish to sponsor us in order to cover your event, please contact us and we can discuss it – but please note that we will clearly label any content produced in that regards as “sponsored” so that our readers will know. We also will not edit our content in order to please a sponsor.
Cocktails, et al: We mostly cover the liquor-related industry. We like to talk about bars that we’ve visited, bartenders we know or have met, drinks we’ve enjoyed, distilleries, etc.
We do NOT cover: general restaurant news, travel, hotels (except hotel bars), general food news, anti-alcoholism or other rehab ventures, e-cigarettes, or really anything that doesn’t involve alcohol in some form or cigars.
We also do not cover tools or ingredients that we do not feel live up to what we strive for in our own personal bars. For instance, we do not cover artificial pre-mixed mixers or flavored vodkas.
Original content: This is by far the most important part. Let me emphasize this:
We do NOT run press releases or advertising materials. We do NOT take story ideas. We do NOT run cocktail recipes, images, or the such that we did not create.
Period.
If you’d like us to cover your product, bar, distillery, etc., feel free to reach out to us and ask us if a) we’d be interested and b) what would be the best way to do it. If you just send us “<fill in the blank> holiday ideas!” or “OMG check out my bar!!1!” we will, at best, ignore your email. We may write you back and ask why you think that, or (now) ask you if you’ve read this post. We may make fun of you on our site.
Please, keep this in mind. We love working with our friends in the industry, be you enthusiasts, bartenders, owners of bars or brands, distillers, even marketers! And we might love to work with you! But if you expect us to read your pitches, we need to know you’ve read our site, too.
– SeanMike