Tips for Successful Media Pitching
By
Minnesota PRSA Admin
Posted: 2024-08-08T16:09:00Z
Tips for Successful Media Pitching: Think like a reporter!
By: Darryl Sellers
News organizations get flooded with media pitches daily. According to PR Daily, reporters receive, on average, between six and 21 pitches per day!
Because of this overload, it’s important to make your media pitches stand out. So, Think Like a Reporter! This will improve the chances that your story will get media coverage.
1. Tailor Your Pitch
- Start with a strong subject line and a pitch that’s concise and tailored to include elements that a reporter needs to develop a story: relevant and recent links to data and sources.
2. Ramp Up Your Research!
- Across the country, newsrooms are tightening their belts. This includes budget cuts, downsizing and layoffs. Nowadays, reporters are tasked with covering multiple news beats and even sports stories. So, it’s important to do your homework. Research and read reporters’ stories related to your media pitch. This will help you target the right reporters for your pitch. Again, make sure you share recent, relevant, accurate information and data sources to make their reporting easier.
3. Pitch Interesting News Angles
- News organizations are facing a numbers game which means editors and producers must prioritize what stories are deemed the most newsworthy to get covered with the number of available reporters. According to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report, 40 percent of journalists are relying more heavily on data (views, engagement, etc.) to determine what stories they’ll cover. So, remember to take a close look at the story you’re pitching and make sure it has an interesting news angle that will generate audience interest.
4. Pitch Stories With Visual Elements
- Add in visual elements into your pitches (that are relevant to your pitch). Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report states that pitches and press releases with multimedia elements drive up to six times more engagement. Adding in a good variety of these elements (polls, surveys, video clips, social media posts, etc.) gives reporters much-needed help with visualizing and producing their stories. Make sure to send your visual content via links.
Newsrooms get bombarded with a lot of pitches every day. They have tight budgets and time constraints! Think like a reporter! By taking some extra time to make extra efforts, you’ll help to make reporters’ jobs easier. As a result, this will give your pitches more appeal, improving the chances your media pitches will move from inboxes to on-air and on newspaper pages.
Check out this article in the June/July issue of PRSA Strategies & Tactics for more tips about What Reporters Want from PR Pitches.