In Between — PR & Ads Update

1. PR outreach — Wave 1A

We are running the bottom-up plan. The first 15 emails went out yesterday and today, ordered smallest to largest by audience reach. This is the opening batch — outreach volume scales from here as warranted by news hooks, festival announcements, and reply momentum.

Tier 1 — Single-voice essayists & niche newsletters

Tier 2 — Bear & body-positive specialty press

Tier 3 — Atlanta-local press (hometown angle)

Tier 4 — Regional LGBTQ newspapers (single market)

Tier 5 — Multi-edition LGBTQ press (biggest reach in this batch)

2. Coming weeks — Wave 1B (June)

Fifteen outlets queued for June sends. Mix of LGBTQ-press EICs, queer-film Substack essayists, indie podcasts, and Atlanta business press. Aidan Wharton already said yes to an interview when we met this week, scheduled for July, so the formal Gay Buffet pitch in June is more of a placeholder.

3. Coming weeks — Wave 1C (July)

Fourteen outlets queued for July sends. Mix of Tier 1 queer-film essayists, regional LGBTQ flagships across the country (Chicago, Tampa, Houston, Twin Cities, Denver, Boston), and additional queer-film podcasts. Aidan Wharton's interview lands in this window.

4. Beyond Wave 1 — what is being added next

The next plan-out pass will fold in outlets we previously held back, including:

• Tier 4 prestige (when the moment is right): Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, Vulture, Filmmaker Magazine 25 New Faces, NYT. These come once we have a wall of small-to-medium coverage built up.
• Aspirational essayists: Hunter Harris (Hung Up), E. Alex Jung (Vulture features), Roxane Gay (The Audacity), Aubrey Gordon (Maintenance Phase), Lindy West (Butt News), Saeed Jones, Ira Madison III, Tre'vell Anderson.
• Mid-tier critics: Sam Fragoso (Talk Easy), Matt Bernstein (A Bit Fruity), Jeffrey Masters (LGBTQ&A), Las Culturistas, Keep It, Nicole Byer.

None of these are pitched in Wave 1. They get added in subsequent waves as the news pipeline warrants (festival selection, OUT publish, distribution announcement).

Already won, on hold

OUT Magazine ran Aaron and Sachin interviews with Ricky Cornish. Ricky is holding the pieces until we have a firmer release date.

5. Aidan Wharton

6. Facebook ad — first 28 hours

We launched two paid campaigns on the In Between Meta account on May 14, 2026. Both are live. The snapshot below is through 2:00 PM Friday.

Who is watching

Spend is skewing 45+, which is what we want. The lookalike model is correctly finding industry-aged users (festival programmers and acquisitions execs skew older). The 25-34 segment has the highest click-through rate at 2.3%, which is a healthy secondary signal that younger queer film fans are also engaging.

Combined

$7.08 spent in the first 28 hours. We have $492 of the monthly $500 cap remaining.

7. Talking-point summary

• All 15 first-wave press emails are out. No replies yet, that is normal for week 1. Expect first replies starting Monday or Tuesday.
• The first batch is intentionally small and niche. Pride Source's Q Syndicate (#15) is the biggest amplifier in the list, and that is by design. We are building credibility before approaching Variety, IndieWire, or Vulture.
• Strategy is locked through July. 45 outlets across May, June, and July, ordered to compound smaller coverage into bigger coverage.
• Aidan Wharton said yes to an interview, locked for July.
• The Facebook ad is live and working. First day, $7 spent, 1,200 impressions, 550 video views, healthy click-through rate among the right age band.
• Nothing is broken, nothing is blocked. Only thing to monitor next week is reply rate.