Right. And there's absolutely no difference between an actual PR person I develop a relationship with a some jackass who wants to sell my email to people who are too dumb to properly Google.
Downvote all you want. This is grotesque and insulting.
Sure, there's a huge difference. But I bet most of the pitches you get are from people who spent just as little time gathering your contact info, but a whole lot more cash through something like Cision.
And I don't downvote people I merely disagree with.
And actually, in this case I would argue that spending more cash is a decent way of filtering the people who are serious from the amateurs. Look, JigSaw, et. all piss me off too. When I get phone calls from people on my cell phone (personal) pitching me stuff I know it's usually because DEMO or the CEA or someone sold my phone number years ago. And that makes me EXTREMELY angry. Like, livid. If you have my phone number, it's because I trusted you enough with it. Otherwise I have a desk phone that I don't even print on my business cards because it would be asking for trouble.
But if you pay hundreds of thousands a year for my info -- as gross as I may find that -- chances are, the person paying is more serious about their job than someone who pays $9 a month. It's sort of like having a fee for developer's for the App Store. $100 is a super-low barrier to entry -- and it's low enough that it means plenty of terrible stuff makes its way to the store. But it's not so low (zero dollars) that there is NO barrier to entry. And that's an important distinction.
Downvote all you want. This is grotesque and insulting.