One of the topics that came up during the PRSA Idaho meeting in February on Effective Pitching Practices was emails. Jill Kuraitis at NewWest.net gave some good points in a half page distributed at the meeting:
1) Know and read the publication
2) Keep format simple and casual; avoid attachments
3) Tell me why it’s a NewWest story

Just finished reading the Groundswell blog of Josh Bernoff ,
Three quarters of the PR email I receive is irrelevant, he gives some great points like only an analyst could. By analyzing his January emails (114) from PR folks, he notes that 75% are completely irrelevant to subjects or companies he covers. More than half were on an industry (TV) he used to cover two years ago. He notes that he prefers the personal note with the text news release. He says the newsletter formats make it easier for him to delete the email and unsubscribe. He also says that most of the PR emails do not come with unsubscribe links that are required by the SPAM email rules.

Personally, I think Josh is right. The personal note highlighting real news that is in his area of expertise or interest with the text of the release is the best approach. My own approach is to use the personal note and include a link to more detailed information on a Web page. This gives the added benefit of tracking the information and know how interested the journalist may be.