Public relations

Newsworthy is a high bar

Most company news is not news. Before pitching, find the actual story — the thing a journalist's readers would care about with your company removed from the sentence.

Genuinely newsworthy: a first, a significant number, a counter-intuitive finding from data you uniquely have, a named conflict, a consequential person moving. Not newsworthy: a funding round of ordinary size, a feature release, a partnership, an award, a rebrand.

If there is no story, the answer is to build one — original research is the most reliable way — not to pitch harder.

Pitching

Journalists receive hundreds of pitches a day and reject most in seconds.

• Pitch a person, not an outlet. Read three of their recent pieces first and reference one specifically and accurately. Generic personalization is worse than none.
• Subject line is the pitch. If it does not carry the story, nothing else will be read.
• Three sentences: the story, why now, why you can speak to it. Offer the assets — data, interview, images — rather than attaching them.
• No embargo without agreement. Declaring one unilaterally is not binding and reads as presumptuous.
• One follow-up, then stop.

Interviews

Decide the two or three things you want to have said, and find honest routes back to them. Never speculate, never say anything you would not want printed, and treat nothing as off the record unless explicitly agreed in advance — and even then, assume it may not hold.

"I don't know, I'll find out" is a complete and respectable answer.

When a story goes badly

• Speed matters, but accuracy matters more. A fast wrong statement extends the story.
• Say what happened, what you are doing, and when you will update. Only that.
• Never dispute a factual detail you have not verified, and never attack the reporter. Both guarantee a second story.
• Correct genuine errors privately, with evidence, and specifically. Vague complaints about tone achieve nothing.

Tooling

Media databases and pitching: Muck Rack, Cision, Prowly, Roxhill, and similar. They are expensive, and their value is contact accuracy and beat data rather than the ability to send in bulk — a list-blast through one of them is the fastest way to be ignored by the journalists on it.

Wire distribution: Business Wire, PR Newswire, and similar. A wire buys disclosure and syndication, not coverage; treat it as a compliance or record-keeping tool unless you have a reason otherwise.

Monitoring: Meltwater, Brandwatch, Google Alerts, and similar. Set it up before the story you need to see, not after.

Never

• Pitch a story that is only news to you. A funding round, a hire, and a redesign are not news outside the company.
• Send a pitch to a journalist whose recent work you have not read.
• Enter an interview without deciding in advance what you will not say.
• Respond to a damaging story before establishing whether it is accurate.