Adding a Contact

1. Select the Main Media Data tab of the main window.

2. Press the add button in the toolbar. Alternatively, you may type control-a on your keyboard. The following screen will appear:
   

3. Enter the contact’s information. Each field is optional. You only need to enter a single piece of information to save the record. Following is a description of each field:

• Updated, By: Click in this field to record the date on which the record was entered, and the publicist who entered the date. This information may be changed. It is initially populated with today’s date, and the default publicist initials set in the options.

• First, Last, Title: Enter the contact’s information.

• Callsign, Show, Affiliate: Enter the name of the contact’s callsign or publication, show name, and affiliate. Use the callsign/publciation field to enter callsign or publication name. For example, if your contact writes for The Boston Globe, enter Boston Globe in the callsign/publication field. If she has a column called “About Town,” enter that as the Show. TIP: Do not use “The.”

• Website: If your contact has a website address, enter it here. You will notice a button next to contacts whose website information has been entered. Your system can be configured to directly access a contact’s website by pressing this button.

• Address, City, State, Zip, Country: Enter the contact’s information.

• Unique: Check this box if this address is different than the Standard Address.

• PO: Check this box if the delivery address is a Post Office Box. You will then be able to distinguish this later when creating mailing labels or shipping disks. Many carriers, such as UPS and Federal Express, do not deliver to PO Boxes.

• Fed Ex: If the contact’s address is a Post Office box, you will need to enter a physical address for them to receive Federal Express or other freight services packages. Clicking on the Fed Ex button allows you to enter a physical address.

• Home: This box gives you a place to store an additional address. For example, if your contact has a home address in addition to a work address.

• Type: Enter the type of media (i.e. TV, Print, etc.) which this contact works with. Publicity Assistant will display a list of all media types available. Make your selection and the window will close automatically. Adding the TYPE of media will make the “callsign” field in your record dynamic. For example: when the contact is coded for “Print media” the “callsign” field will change to Publication. When the contact is coded for “Online services” the field will change to Site. Radio and Television will remain callsign but a set of fields will appear at the bottom of the record in which you can add specific information about the show.

• Markets: Enter the market that this contact represents. You will be prompted to select from a pre-defined list. When you have made your selection, type control-end or the close window box in the top right corner of the window.

• Categories: Select the category or categories for this contact. Your organization will have established a set of pre-defined categories, such as sports, women’s issues, politics, etc. When you have made your selections, type control-end or the close window box in the top right corner of the window.

• Circulation, Rank, Hits, Watts: Enter the circulation of print media, the market ranking of television media, the watts of radio media, and the online hits of online media. This information can then be used as criteria in searching for contacts in the Main Media Data. Enter the type of media first, and then type your circulation information directly into the box. This field is dynamic and corresponds with the type of media.

• Phone, Fax, email: Enter your contact’s information. When you click on any of these fields, the telecommunications window will open. You have the option to input as many phone, fax and e-mail entries as you like, and to designate one of each as primary. When you have finished entering data, type control-end or the close window box in the top right corner of the window. Notice that for contacts with e-mail information, an e-mail button will appear. By pressing this button, an e-mail composition window will appear. If your Publicity Assistant 2000 system is set up with direct e-mail access, this feature provides an easy way to send e-mail to contacts. (For more information see, Blast e-mail.)
  4. Save your contact information. To do this, either type control-end on your keyboard, or select the close button in the data entry window. You can also save individual contact records by paging up or down to other contacts, or by using the scrollbar for this purpose.