It always fascinated me to know how many press releases a journalist receives each day and, from that, how many actually get published.

So I asked that question when I had a coffee with the managing and associate editors of an online news website in Lincoln that has become hugely influential in the city.

In a little over three years, Daniel Ionescu and Elizabeth Fish have built up The Lincolnite to become a respected outlet for news, jobs and events. And with an active social media dimension including Twitter and Facebook pages, it’s a good portal not only to get news but to interact with the news as well.

Daniel said that, as a rough rule of thumb, if he’s busy and doesn’t look at his email for an hour, he can expect somewhere in the region of 50 emails – the majority of which will be press releases. If you times that by eight during a working day, then that can be around 300–400 press releases. And that’s not including the ones that Elizabeth and the other reporters get sent directly. So, even being conservative, the newsroom at The Lincolnite can receive upwards of 500–600 press releases per day.

And now here’s the killer bit. The Lincolnite aims to publish around 15 stories per day. Or a few more if it’s an exceptional news day.

So if you’re sending them a press release, you’ve got a one in 40 chance of getting it published on The Lincolnite.

And the odds increase substantially for established regional news media and dramatically for national news media.

Watch this space for some hints and tips about how to beat these odds and get your press releases published.