How much should you spend on a press release? A lot less than you might think.

According to the 2007 Journalist Survey on Media Relations Practices I posted on yesterday, reporters in overwhelming numbers prefer to get their news from us via email -- not the big newswires.

That's right.

• Nearly 8 out of 10 (77.9%) surveyed said they prefer to receive their news "via press releases sent to me by email."
• Another 4.5% chose "official alerts sent to me from a corporate online newsroom" ... which, of course, come via email.
• And, hold your breath, just 7.6% wanted their news "via commercial newswires (such as PR Newswire or BusinessWire).

We've all done it: sent an email we wish we hadn't, forwarded a message to someone we didn't intend to, deleted a message by mistake, or otherwise misused (or overused) email.

Two new books offer advice for managing it, and avoiding some of the more common email-related blunders.

Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home is co-written by Will Schwalbe, editor in chief of Hyperion Books, and David Shipley, op-ed page editor of The New York Times. It is all about the etiquette and style of emailing other people.

For example, they describe eight reasons why you may not want to email:

1. The ease of email encourages unnecessary exchanges.
2. Email has largely replaced the phone call, but not every phone call should be replaced.
3. You can reach everyone, but everyone can reach you.

Jason Calacanis, co-founder of Weblogs and a tech industry luminary, recently posted on the issue of email interviews:

A WIRED journalist pinged me for some comments on Michael Arrington and his A-list blogger status. I told the journalist to send me the questions by email and he refused.

What's interesting is what follows. Calacanis posted a BlackBerry email he sent back to the reporter:

Frankly, you need to adapt. Journalists have misquoted people for so long--and quoted them out of context that many people like to have their words on record.

I don't want someone taking half a sentence or paraphrasing me... Just too much risk.

Besides I have 10,000 people come to my blog every day--i don't need wired to talk to the tech industry.

The New York Times published a story yesterday that caught my eye.  It talked about how the Internet is giving interview subjects the power to respond to articles in a new way.  News sources are putting transcripts of their interviews with reporters online and posting entire e-mail interview threads on their blogs.

There is one lively situation the Times story discusses in which Mark Cuban was interviewed electronically for an NYT story and, unhappy with the result, posted the interview on his blog. Feel free to click to Cuban's post.  It's lively reading.  I'm not suggesting that such tactics ought to be widely practiced.  It is a powerful way to make a point, but it may come at the expense of your relationship with the reporter.

What I am suggesting is this: Watch what you write!