And don't forget that a reporter needs some time to work with your material, and is balancing your story against many others. Typically, morning daily newspapers close the edition around 10 p.m., afternoon papers at around 11 a.m., weeklies two to four days before publication. Some sections may close earlier than others. A large metropolitan Sunday newspaper may close the magazine, comics, arts, living, and classified sections as early as Monday, and have them already printed and collated as early as the previous Thursday. This frees up the presses for news and sports sections that get printed Saturday night.
TV stations tend to like to do the camera work at least two to four hours before the newscast.
Feature departments, including community calendars or letters to the editor, may have a deadline that applies to you, rather than the reporter. Again, respect the deadline and be on time. The easiest way to turn the press into your publicity bureau is by having an event. Having any kind of event makes you automatically newsworthy. So a good trick for you as the publicist is to phrase your activity as an event.