Social Pro Daily

Pitch, Please: Journalists Sound Off on Media Relations

The week's best responses...to PR pitches.

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By Patrick Coffee

Happy Friday again, everybody.

As we prepare for the long weekend, it’s time for another look at the week’s best/worst responses to pitches with the help of our friends at Muck Rack (and apologies to a certain chief of staff).

First up, Owen Williams of Venture Beat has a helpful hint for what does not constitute a newsworthy announcement:

Next up in tech, Emil Protalinksi of Venture Beat emphasizes the importance of basic spell check (though we all get the point, duh):

We really sympathize with this string because it can be tough to make a tech-related release stand out. Steve O’Hear of TechCrunch wasn’t too impressed with this one:

For yet another problematic tech pitch, Casey Newton of The Verge reminds us that the basics do need to work:

It’s true that tech reporters often have very little patience with pitches. But, in their defense, there’s a good reason for that. From Kyle Russell of TechCrunch in response to Karyne Levy of NerdWallet:

He’s barely exaggerating, if at all.

Next, a harsh one from Ronald Barba of tech.co:

Ouch. We should note that most of the people who faved that one were PRs. And yes, we have received two follow-ups to the same pitch on the same day.

Next, Adam Feuerstein of The Street reminds us that it’s never really a good idea to cold call someone’s personal phone:

Damn.

In other can’t-believe-someone-tried-this responses, keep in mind that Motoko Rich is a New York Times reporter:

Do people really still do this?!

Next, Suzanne Barlyn of Reuters has another basic tip: sources should ideally not have to catch up on the stories they’re referencing as “experts.”

On the holidays front, Tyler Coates of The New York Post is ready for the Father’s Day pitches…sort of:

Would it be this card?! Because that’s kind of mean, dude.

Here’s a very interesting and arguably positive conversation aimed at journalists, many of whom–as this very feature makes clear–aren’t sure about the most appropriate ways to respond to a mismatched pitch.

We really like Luvvie Ajayi’s post because she encourages the pitchees to be gentle on the first round; she obviously understands how challenging media relations can be. And we totally agree that it’s more productive to be constructive.  

That said, many journalists like, say, the TechCrunch scribe above just don’t have time to respond to every pitch, even if they have a template at the ready. And some people disagreed with Ajayi:  

Kushner does have a point, though this really is a learning process.

Finally, we end with a positive.

Barry Petchesky of Deadspin does indeed cover pro wrestling! Not sure if this one worked, but it is an amusing and well-targeted pitch for a tough client:

Pitching is kind of like acting in that way: you have to stick to the script for the most part, but you do the best you can with the material you have.

And we’re not afraid to admit that we totally googled “scotty 2 hotty” after reading that one. His Twitter profile is…really something.

Hope everyone has a great (and hopefully pitch-free) long weekend.

Headshot of Patrick Coffee

Patrick Coffee

Patrick Coffee is a senior editor for Adweek.

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