Help a Reporter Out

Peter Shankman (an entrepreneur and the CEO of The Geek Factory, a PR and Marketing boutique firm) has started a very neat service called, Help a Reporter Out, to help all his reporter friends.

The premise is simple. Peter Shankman maintains an email list which is free to join if you are interested in helping out a reporter. You'll get about three emails a day from Peter Shankman, all with reporters looking for sources. The emails will all be labeled with [shankman.com] in the subject line, for easy filtering. If you see a query you can answer, you simply reply. (If you are a journalist, you can submit your query via this form on the site.)

I joined ten days ago and even though I haven't seen a query that I can answer yet, I enjoy getting the emails and reading about the different topics that reporters are looking for further information about. I figure that eventually there will be something I can help with or I will know someone who can.

It really is a fantastic idea. I think everyone wants to be able to help if they can and this site provides an opportunity to do just that.