What do you reckon?

thats an interesting one, I got a lot of these offers for magazines (for sites I put up on Google) and they always seemed like a scam to me, never bothered declining them as I wasnt a plumber or what ever they were looking for.

What I would say is that it seems like it was a massive email campaign (may be not that massive) as it started with dear sir/madam. This probably means they got a list of somewhere and just sent this out.

No harm in asking for more info if your interested

To be honest, as I've mentioned in another post, I don't believe in the word "free" why would anyone want to give airtime away for nothing? Dosen't make sense. Besides I have enough trouble covering London without going elsewhere to earn a crust...

You turned down Sarah Beeny??? Dohhh I'm her biggest fan

So I wonder if shes gets most of the stuff for free for that huge house of her's shes renovating! Very shrewd

Perhaps TV wants you because you've got personality and they need a Barney to jazz up their programmes a bit? You've probably given their researchers livelier comments than they get from most of their telephone calls, making them believe it'd help their ratings to get you more involved. A certain taxi driver did well out of this, why shouldn't a plumber?

My "media" experience is limited to the press (national, online and regional) and regional radio. The journalists / presenters have wanted people able to provide useful quotes or topic expertise at very short notice.

If you're able to beat their deadlines consistently, you've a better than average chance of developing an ongoing, mutually profitable relationship. Don't expect too much though - it's bad for the journalists' professional credibility if the expert interviewee is always Ms or Mr Bloggs.

Journalists and presenters seem to accept the deal's got to work both ways. You need to agree your "price" beforehand for giving them useable material. If it's me, for example, I always want them to quote my company name and website address and I'd expect them to meet any costs involved (eg transport to the interview). You're often able to "tweak" the deal offered to suit your business needs.

The publicity I've gained this way has created some useful awareness of my company (sometimes lasting longer than I'd expected) but not much actual business. The effort involved in helping out the journalists hasn't been much - on balance, the cost-benefit ratio works for my business.

Hope this helps, best wishes Linda

Ha ha, Only if they want to lose viewers, it would be like having Victor Meldrew on the box again