Why your PR pitches are destined to fail
Leading journalists receive—and delete—dozens of pitches every day. Here’s how to ensure yours survive the newsroom gauntlet.
PR pitches often get lost in the newsroom shuffle. Thanks to today’s always-on news cycle, many journalists now file multiple stories and field hundreds of emails daily.
“I’m not alone when I say I get upwards of 25-30 emails an hour,” says Daniel Cooper, a senior editor at Engadget, where he covers consumer tech. “That means I’ve got a high noise-to-signal ratio to struggle through.”
Here are his tips for ensuring your pitches stand out from the noise:
1. Avoid common “bad” pitches. Certain pitches are almost guaranteed to never be accepted. Three types destined to fail:
Cooper’s response to this type of pitch: “Probably not,” he says, “because the first one was a bit of a stretch, and unless you’ve got some really different features, you should have pitched us months ago.”
Cooper’s response: “Just…no,” he says. “It’s the same response if you want me to interview this unrelated person for no discernible reason.”
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