Social Pro Daily

Pitch, Please: Journalists Sound Off on Media Relations

A collection of the week's best responses...to PR pitches.

Headshot of Patrick Coffee
By Patrick Coffee

Hello, readers. How was your week?

It’s Friday again, which means that it’s time for another edition of our collaboration with Muck Rack in which we catalog journalists’ responses to the best and (mostly) worst pitches of the week.

First, you knew it was coming…DADBOD. There’s a pitch for every hashtag, we guess:

At least it was a men’s magazine, right? There are pitches that are a little too sexy and those that just can’t help but bore everyone involved to tears:

Then there’s this one:

That, like, doesn’t make sense, Scoob. But while we’re on the topic of geography, AK and AR are not quite the same thing:

Now on to the week’s biggest media news item: Verizon’s acquisition of AOL for its sweet, sweet ad tech assets. As Jack Marshall of The Wall Street Journal notes, everything else played second string on Tuesday:

Of course, that didn’t stop people from trying. Nor did it discourage those who MAY have been a little late to the game:

On the subject of subject lines, this one is almost a winner:

Wow. What a wild, winding, windy tale that must be.

Now, we’re all about specificity in pitches. But this one sent to Doug Schneider of the Green Bay Press-Gazette might be a little too specific:

For some back-to-basics tips, here’s Meg Tirrell of CNBC:

This is especially true if it’s a cold call, dudes. Also–and this one happens a good bit:

Every PR how-to emphasizes the value of learning your target’s beat, but Kim Zetter of Wired reminds us that the message doesn’t always sink in:

Of course, learning a beat is one thing. Providing real news is another:

Our next tweet from Erin McCann of The Guardian addresses a serious challenge: determining who actually chooses which stories to cover.

That one is close to our hearts because we get a lot of pitches for our sister site AgencySpy that go directly to contributors when the site’s editor [Ed. note: that’s me] is the one who decides what will get covered. It’s complicated.

Speaking of dubious practices, can we please stop doing this?

OK then.

Finally here’s a great one from Christopher Mims of the Wall Street Journal, who reinforces a common acronym: Keep It Simple, Stupid:

Yes, we know this one was from last week. But Mims makes a very valuable point:

Keep that in mind until next Friday!

OK, one more. We had to share this one because it is perfect in its own way:

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Headshot of Patrick Coffee

Patrick Coffee

Patrick Coffee is a senior editor for Adweek.

Recommended articles