Site Review: Groovin' on Gorkana

Someone on a writers' web site mentioned Gorkana.com. I took a look and it seems to be a useful and free marketing tool for journalists. (Sorry, but corporate writers probably won't get anything from it.)

Gorkana has two sides: one for journalists, and another for PR people. For writers, the cost is that you have to be a working journalist, and you must let information be put into a database to which PR people have access. I haven't found myself inundated any more heavily than usual, so I'm not sure that's a problem. What you get as a journalist are a few things. One is regularly emailed updates to industry changes. From Gorkana alerts, I recently got the still-current email address for the editor who will head the new weekend magazine for the Wall Street Journal and the current email and phone for the new managing editor of Conde Nast's Portfolio.

If you need a source or sample, you can post a request through the alerts the site sends to press representatives. You can also offer your services to editors. I think it's definitely worth checking out.